Each country will contribute to the audit evaluating how national Catholic Churches are implementing such measures.

"Without more transparency the faithful will continue to lose trust," he says.

"Abuse in any form is unacceptable.

"This [annual] report will ... provide a clear audit of our progress in this effort.

"Without that progress, the faithful will continue to lose trust in their pastors, and preaching and witnessing to the Gospel will become increasingly difficult," he says.

The pope made the request for the audit at a meeting with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was established in 2014 to promote best practices and a culture of safeguarding worldwide.

Although to date the Commission has had a few difficulties, the Vatican's newly updated constitution placed it in the doctrinal department which rules on abuse cases.

The worldwide sexual abuse crisis has seen the Church suffer massive damage to its credibility and billions of dollars in settlements, with some dioceses declaring bankruptcy.

The Commission's role

The Commission acts in an advisory capacity. It is made up mostly of lay people, including clergy sexual abuse survivors such as Juan Carlos Cruz of Chile, one of the most vocal defenders of abuse victims.

Father Andrew Small, its secretary, says the annual audit would detail the strength of guidelines in individual countries, dioceses, national bishops conferences and regional bishops conferences.

The Commission's job is to "supervise, be vigilant, oversee, encourage and report back," he says.

Francis has promised the Commission autonomy with a direct reporting line to him.

Part of the mandate is to determine if dioceses are conforming to a 2019 papal directive ordering "public, stable and easily accessible systems for submission" of reports of sexual abuse.

Some countries, such as the United States, established procedures sometimes known as "listening centres", even before the 2019 directive.

Others, particularly in the developing world, have been slow to conform.

"Sexual abuse in the Church has been going on for far too long and we still have a long way to go," Cruz says.

"The Commission will help and also oversee that bishops conferences around the world implement these offices where survivors can go to receive attention, receive the care that they need and receive some kind of explanation where their cases are.

"Not knowing the status of a complaint can be incredibly re-traumatising and re-victimising for survivors."

Source

• Reuters
• Image: America Magazine

Juan Carlos Cruz, an international advocate for abuse victims, has been appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The 59-year-old Cruz was abused as a teenager in his native Chile by a notorious paedophile, Father Fernando Karadima.

Karadima was convicted in 2011 by a Vatican court of committing pedophile acts in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also dismissed from the clerical state and sentenced to lead a life of penance.

During the pope's trip to Chile in 2018, Cruz criticised Francis for defending a bishop whom Cruz and other victims accused of having witnessed Karadima abuse them and of covering up for him.

Days after returning to Rome, Francis, citing new information, ordered an investigation of the Church in Chile. It produced a 2,300-page report accusing Chile's bishops of "grave negligence" in investigating the allegations. The report also said evidence of sex crimes had been destroyed.

Francis later that year received Cruz and other victims of Karadima in the Vatican and demanded the resignation of all of Chile's bishops.

"When the pope asked me for forgiveness, I have never seen someone so contrite. I felt he was in pain," Cruz said of his private meeting with Francis.

By this time, the pope was aware Cruz was openly gay and living with his partner in the United States.

"God loves you just as you are," Francis told him.

Cruz has spent years fighting clergy sex abuse and the Church's code of silence. He expressed "his gratitude" to the pope for the new appointment.

"I am very grateful to Pope Francis for trusting me with this appointment. This renews my commitment to continue working to end the scourge of abuse and for so many survivors who still do not have justice," Cruz said on Twitter.

Sources

La Croix International

Reuters

Al Jazeera

Ezzati's resignation came after he was placed under criminal investigation in the country's spiralling church sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Spanish-born Capuchin friar and current bishop of Copiapo, Chile, Monsignor Celestino Aos Braco will replace Ezzati in the interim.

Ezzati, 77, is one of the 33 Chilean bishops who all offered their resignation to Francis last May amid accusations of cover-ups of sexual abuse by priests.

To date, Francis has accepted the resignations of eight bishops.

Ezzati is perceived as responsible for years of silence regarding 251 alleged crimes.

He denies that he had led a cover-up.

"I can say, with my head held high, that all the complaints that have reached the complaints office that I created in 2011 have been investigated, or are being investigated", he says.

"It's not enough to say that I have covered up (abuse), you have to prove it."

Ezzati had been linked to at least three cases of cover-ups.

One involved alleged abuse committed by former archdiocese chancellor Oscar Munoz who was in charge of the church's sexual abuse investigation files, and is currently under criminal investigation and under house arrest.

The Chilean abuse cases stretch back to the 1940s with the most recent being that of a homeless man who claims to have been drugged and raped by a priest in a dormitory inside the Cathedral of Santiago in 2015.

The accuser told the police he returned once to the Cathedral, where Ezzati hears confession from time to time, to tell him his story. He said he received a hug from the archbishop and was given the equivalent of $45 in Chilean pesos by another priest.

When asked about the homeless man, Ezzati told a local television station early this month: "I don't know him."

Victims rights activists say Francis's acceptance of Ezzati's resignation is a positive step.

"Cardinal Ezzati represents everything that we have fought against for years, especially the culture of abuse and cover-up," said Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murrillo in a statement.

The three are abuse survivors who have helped lead a campaign pressuring the Vatican to take action.

Source

• South China Morning PostImage:
• LA Times
• Daily Sabah

Survivors believe they have won a major victory in their quest for justice as the original lawsuit they brought before the court was dismissed five years ago.

However, new evidence obtained from raids conducted on the archdiocesan chancery proved that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago, closed an investigation into Karadima.

The court was said to have awarded 450 million pesos ($661,000) in compensation for damages to Karadima's victims.

In a press statement, abuse survivors Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo said that although the path to the verdict was long and full of difficulties, "it was worth it.

"The strategies of the Chilean church, especially Cardinals (Riccardo) Ezzati and Errazuriz, in covering up abuses, protecting abusers and silencing victims has received a strong response from Chilean courts."

The survivors say both the Chilean courts and the Vatican are "on the same line to end the culture of abuse and cover-up of which the cardinals are faithful representatives."

The court's ruling centered on an email sent in 2009 by Cardinal Errazuriz to Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, the former apostolic nuncio to Chile.

In this, Errazuriz says he presented the accusations of abuse to the archdiocesan promotor of justice, the church's canonical prosecutor, because "it usually calms the aggressiveness of the accusers.

"Out of respect for Father Karadima, I did not ask the prosecutor to interrogate him; I only asked (Auxiliary) Bishop Andres Arteaga for his opinion. He thought that everything was absolutely implausible. Considering the facts, I closed the investigation," Errazuriz wrote.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Catholic Spirit
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Francis summoned them to the Vatican last month.

He wants to discuss short, medium and long-term reforms to the church.

Francis has admitted he made "grave errors in judgment" about Bishop Juan Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse perpetrated by Fr Fernando Karadima.

He blames a "lack of truthful and balanced information" for his errors.

The executive committee of the Chilean bishops conference says the bishops came to Rome in "humility and hope."

Their meeting with Francis includes examining the clerical sex abuse cover-up.

The bishops have praised Francis's recent meetings with three of Karadima's survivors, saying his example "showed us the path that the Chilean church is called to follow."

The survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, stayed with Francis as his guests early this month so he could listen to their testimony.

He personally apologised to them for having discredited them in January.

At that time he said their accusations against Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse were "calumny."

He had also demanded they provide proof of Barros's wrongdoing.

However, after receiving a 2,300-page report compiled by top Vatican investigators who traveled to Chile and interviewed victims, priests and lay Catholics, Francis realised he had been misled.

Source

• Washington Post
• Vatican News
• Image: Prensa Latina

Leaked emails from 2013 and 2014 between Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago and his predecessor Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz showtheir efforts to block the appointment of Juan Carlos Cruz.

The cardinals feared such an appointment would damage the Church and would allow "lies" to gain currency.

They also discussed the key Vatican officials they needed to consult to prevent Cruz from being invited to speak at a meeting of Anglophone bishops on sex abuse.

Cruz has been outspoken in accusing Cardinal Errazuriz of covering up for the crimes of abuser Fr Ferando Karadima.

Commission member Marie Collins said she was "disgusted" at the cardinals' attitude and said it would be discussed by the commission.

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