Vatican promises to hear more abuse complaints in Chile – Archbishop Scicluna
Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, appointed as a Papal envoy tasked with looking into clerical sexual abuse, is leaving Chile but says the Vatican will continue collecting testimony from people who allege they were sexually abused.
Archbishop Scicluna says investigating such cases “is a duty of justice.”
He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the end of his second trip to the country, which has been rocked by scandals over cover-ups by senior churchmen, three of whom have been forced to resign.
Scicluna’s mission took the declarations of 64 people on a first visit and on his return, brought a papal request for pardon from a southern diocese whose bishop was among those who resigned.
He says a church office will continue to receive oral or written complaints.
On Sunday Archbishop Scicluna asked forgiveness from Roman Catholics in the region of Chile where people bitterly protested a now-resigned bishop who had once been a lieutenant of the country’s most notorious predator priest.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna said a Mass and told worshippers that, “Pope Francis has given me the task of asking pardon from all of the faithful in the diocese of Osorno.”
The Pope at one point had dismissed complaints against Bishop Juan Barros as “stupid.” But he switched course after ordering an investigation led by Scicluna and himself meeting with victims of abuse. A week ago, Francis accepted the resignation of Barrios and two other bishops.
Last Sunday’s Mass drew groups of people who had stayed away from church because of Barrios’ original appointment as well as his supporters.
Barros has been at the centre of Chile’s growing scandal of clerical sex abuse ever since Francis appointed him bishop in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, the pope’s own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile’s other bishops.
The critics questioned Barros’ suitability to lead since he had been a top lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious predator priest and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse by that priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Barros denied the charge, but he twice offered to resign in the ensuing years.