Pope Francis accepts resignations of three Chilean bishops
VATICAN CITY/SANTIAGO, (Reuters) - Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of three Chilean bishops following sex abuse scandals, including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, the city at the centre of the uproar, the Vatican said yesterday.
In an unprecedented move, all of Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign en masse last month after attending a meeting with the pope over allegations of a cover-up of sexual abuse in the country.
A Vatican official said yesterday’s move represented a first step towards re-ordering the battered Roman Catholic Church in Chile and that the pope was still considering the positions of the other prelates.
Besides 61-year-old Barros, the pope also agreed to the departures of Cristian Caro Cordero, bishop of Puerto Montt, and Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortazar, bishop of Valparaiso, who had both reached the normal retirement age of 75.
Church administrators were appointed to run all three dioceses.
Barros, who has always denied allegations he witnessed and covered up sexual abuse cases, asked for forgiveness for his “limitations” in handling the scandal in a statement.
He asked the Virgin Mary “that one day the whole truth will shine forth.”
Victims hailed his removal and suggested he and others should face prosecution by the judicial authorities.
Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for a group of lay Catholics in Osorno who fought for Barros’ removal from office, said it was a “minimum condition” that they had sought from the pope.
“The pope has a big challenge to guarantee that this cannot happen again,” he told Reuters by phone. “A pope could come into office that doesn’t care about these things, that’s why concrete changes have to be made.”
He called for judicial authorities to examine whether some abusers, or those who helped cover up abuse, could be prosecuted.
“The resignation of these bishops should not dilute their criminal responsibility,” he said. “They shouldn’t leave their posts to go home; some of them should go to prison. The pope has statements in his possession (from his investigators) that contain allegations of crimes we don’t even know about.”
Jaime Coiro, general secretary of the Chilean Catholic Church, noted that the pope has said the case will require short-, medium- and long-term measures, which could include accepting the resignations of more bishops.