Francis's handwritten letter follows the bishops' formal, written apology for failing to listen to clerical abuse victims.

In addition to their apology, the bishops have made a number of changes to prevent charges of interfering with the pursuit of justice by alleged victims occurring in future.

These include:

• Promising to draw up a formal agreement with the national prosecutor's office to share information
• Vowing to release information on investigations carried out within their dioceses and urging the superiors of religious orders to do the same
• Expanding the competencies of their national review board and appointing a laywoman lawyer to lead it
• Appointing another laywoman to direct a new department within the bishops' conference for the Prevention of Abuse.

In his letter, Francis told the bishops he is "impressed by the reflection, discernment and decisions" they have taken.

"May the Lord reward you abundantly for this communal and pastoral effort," Francis said.

"The decisions (of the bishops) are realistic and concrete. I'm sure that they will decidedly help in this process."

Francis's response to the bishops is very different from his public denunciation of the "culture of abuse and cover-up" in Chile's Catholic Church in April this year.

At that time, Francis said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean Church leaders truly ever listened to victims as Chile's abuse scandal spread.

Source

• Crux Now
• Catholic Herald
• Image: TED Talks

Anti-abuse activists called the move the Vatican's first concrete step in Chile to purge a corrupt church hierarchy implicated in decades of sexual mistreatment and ignoring victims.

Barros of Osorno, Chile, has been at the centre of a sex abuse scandal for several years, having been accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by convicted paedophile Father Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 1990s.

Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015, despite the objections of local Catholics, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile's other bishops. Over 1,000 people wrote to him protesting Barros's appointment.

They questioned Barros's suitability as he had been in charge of Karadima and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Francis became involved in the Barros scandal when he defended him during his visit to Chile in January.

"The day I see proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk. There is not a single piece of evidence against him. It is all slander. Is that clear?" Francis said at the time.

He later apologised to victims, saying: "I apologise to them if I hurt them without realising it, but it was a wound that I inflicted without meaning to."

A Vatican official says the Pope's acceptance of Barros's resignation represented a first step towards re-ordering the Church in Chile.

He says Francis is still considering the positions of the other prelates.

In the meantime, he has accepted resignations from two other Chilean bishops because they have reached the retirement age of 75.

Last month Chile's 34 bishops offered to resign en masse after meeting Francis at the Vatican about allegations of covering up sexual abuse.

This is the first time in 200 years the resignation of an entire delegation of bishops has occurred.

"Today begins a new day for the Catholic Church in Chile and hopefully the world," Juan Carlos Cruz, the key witness in the Barros abuse case, said on Twitter.

"We hope this is the beginning of the end of this culture of abuse and cover-up in the Church. Emotional but great day!"

Francis has created a Vatican committee to fight sexual abuse and help victims.

Source

• BBC
• Al Jazzera
• Vatican News
• LA Times
• Image: Christian Today

In 1945, seven bishops who had collaborated with the fascist Vichy regime were sacked.

Covering up the sexual abuse of children, therefore, has now joined collaborating with Robespierre or Hitler as one of the things that forces a pope to take the extraordinary step of removing a bishop from office.

In all three instances, the hierarchy earned the odium plebis, the hatred of the people, which warranted their removal. They had proved themselves to be not shepherds but wolves, or wolf-helpers.

In the Gospel of Luke we read: "Jesus said to His disciples, 'It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.' "

The Holy Father's scorching commentary on the behavior of the Chilean bishops resonates with this kind of fervor. It is a pastoral fervor, to be sure, whipped into righteous indignation.

I do not share the desire that the pope accept all the resignations he was just offered, but I understand why so many sex abuse victims and victims' advocates entertain that desire.

Fr James O'Connell told NCR, "If it's an attempt by all the bishops to just be a team together, then it'd be so impractical that the pope cannot really accept all of those resignations," worrying that the mass resignation might be a kind of "ploy."

It is true that bishops and clergy, like members of the military, share a corporate sense of identity that the rest of us only experience in our families.

That corporate identity makes it appropriate for the bishops to tender their resignations as a body.

We do not know which bishops, if any, spoke up about the group's apparent indifference to the suffering of the victims.

We do not know which bishops were guilty of covering up incidents of abuse and which were not.

I hope the pope is not afraid to draw the important distinctions that need to be made in deciding which bishops should stay at their post because they truly did no wrong and raised their voices in fraternal correction, and those who should retire quietly, which seems the appropriate penalty for bishops who did not cover up abuse but said nothing when others did, and which bishops should face yet stiffer penalties, those who actively participated in the cover-up. Continue reading

But far from ending the crisis, the decision heralds the beginning of a long rebuilding process in which Pope Francis will have a free hand to choose their successors.

After their week in Rome, Chile's bishops have now returned to their dioceses. Despite submitting their resignations to Pope Francis they will remain in their posts until these are accepted.

In a few cases, Rome's decision will probably not take long. In others, Pope Francis will need time to consider and perhaps study the various files.

Meanwhile, as a result of the shock caused by Friday's events, new sex abuse cases have already begun to emerge.

Over the weekend, a group of priests from Rancagua, south of Santiago, were accused of belonging to a vast network of abusers.

Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of Rancagua reportedly first received these accusations 18 months ago. However, he took no action for lack of evidence despite presiding over the Chilean church commission responsible for fighting sexual abuse.

This weekend, he finally announced the suspension of 15 priests — nearly a quarter of the priests of the diocese!

Meanwhile, the collective resignation of the Chilean bishops will give Pope Francis a free hand to tackle the issues.

On Tuesday, he predicted that the problems "will not be solved simply by dealing with particular cases and reducing them to the dismissal of individuals."

"That will be necessary, as I have clearly said, but it is not enough," he said. "We need to go further."

"It would be irresponsible on our part not to go deeper and look at the root of the problem and the structures that allowed these events to occur and perpetuate themselves," he said.

He cited an "elitist psychology that ends up by generating dynamics of division, separation, 'closed circles,' leading to a narcissist and authoritarian spirituality," the pope said.

This occurred to the extent that, as the victims themselves attested, the Chilean bishops did not hesitate to "dupe" the pope of the facts, leading him to side with them and repudiate victims.

It will take a long time for the Chilean Church to rebuild itself on a healthy basis. However, Francis wants the whole church involved including laypeople.

How are Vatican officials responding?

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, was the only other Vatican official to take part in Pope Francis' series of face to face meeting with the Chilean bishops.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Curia was kept at a distance from the matter, which personally implicated the pope. The Vatican continued to function normally throughout the week.

On Saturday, however, the coincidence between the announcement of the canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the funeral of Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who backed Rome's takeover of the Latin American Church under Pope John Paul II, led some observers to raise questions as to whether it was opportune to take a fresh look at these events.

Another person involved here and who had close ties with Chile was Pope John Paul II's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

As nuncio in Santiago during the Pinochet dictatorship, Sodano helped fashion the current Chilean Church. Continue reading

• Image: Now the end begins

Their resignation followed four sessions with Francis in which they had to explain their actions.

Francis then wrote to them. He asked them to make a "frank discernment in the face of the grave events that have damaged the ecclesial communion and weakened the work of the Church of Chile in recent years."

The bishops have asked forgiveness from the victims, the Pope and all Catholics for their "grave errors and omissions."

They have also vowed to repair the damage they have done.

Whether Francis will accept their resignation is yet to be seen.

Bishop Carlos Pellegrin of Chillan says, in offering to resign en masse, the bishops didn't want to suggest they were "abandoning ship" and leaving Francis alone to deal with their mess.

Another of the bishops, Alejandro Goic, apologised on Saturday for failing to respond to reports of cases of sexual abuse in his diocese.

These included allegations that a priest sent naked pictures of himself to a false Facebook profile.

While many of the Chilean victims of abuse welcomed the news, they have called for the Vatican to pursue further action.

"There are very good people within the Chilean Church who could take over the reins and repair the damage done by these corrupt bishops," Juan Carlos Cruz, who was an abuse victim, says.

Source

• Zenit
• NZ Herald
• France 24
• Image: Christian Today

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

"I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information," the Pope said in a letter addressed to the Chilean bishops.

"I apologize to all those I have offended," he said, adding that he plans to apologize personally to some of the survivors who gave testimony "in the coming weeks."

Afte reading the 2,300-page dossier his envoys prepared after a nearly two-week visit to New York and Chile Francis said he felt "pain and shame" for the "crucified lives" of those who suffered abuse.

He praised the 64 people who gave testimonials for having had the courage to bare the "wounds of their souls" for the sake of truth.

Francis also thanked news organizations for respecting the victims' confidentiality while "respecting the right of citizens to information."

Francis had twice defended Bishop Juan Barros Madrid during his Jan. 15-18 trip to Chile, calling the accusations against Barros "calumny" and even saying then he was "convinced he is innocent."

Barros, whom Francis appointed to the small diocese of Osorno in 2015, has been accused of protecting notorious abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima as a priest in the 1980s and '90s.

Subsequently, he sent Scicluna to investigate the scandal.

Francis has summoned Chile's bishops to the Vatican for an emergency meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the scandal.

He has made clear that Chile's bishops must now work to "re-establish confidence in the church, confidence that was broken by our errors and sins, and heal the wounds that continue to bleed in Chilean society."

While the letter doesn't reveal Scicluna's conclusions, Francis made clear the bishops needed to "repair the scandal where possible and re-establish justice."

Source

• twitter.com
• pbs.org
• abcnews.go.com
• ncronline.org
• Image: patheos.com