Pope accepts resignation of child abuse scandal bishop
POPE Francis has accepted the resignation of the bishop at the centre of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal as he launches the purge of a Church that has lost its credibility in the country after accusations of abuse and cover-up.
A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, as well as Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt.
Of the three, only the 61-year-old Barros is below the retirement age of 75. Barros has been at the centre of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015, even though he had been a lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious paedophile priest, Fernando Karadima, and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.
He denies the charges, but he joined 30 of Chile’s other active bishops in offering their resignations to Francis at an extraordinary Vatican summit last month.
Francis had summoned Chile’s Church leaders to Rome after realising he had made “grave errors in judgment” about Barros, whom he had defended strongly during his troubled visit to Chile in January.
Barros’ removal, which had been expected, was met with praise by abuse survivors and Catholics in Osorno. But they warned that more resignations and actions must follow.
Juan Carlos Cruz, the abuse survivor who denounced Barros for years and pressed for the Vatican to take action, tweeted: “A new day has begun in Chile’s Catholic Church!
“I’m thrilled for all those who have fought to see this day.
Francis realised he had misjudged the Chilean situation after meeting Mr Cruz and reading the 2,300-page report compiled by two leading Vatican investigators about the depth of Chile’s scandal, which has devastated the credibility of the Church in a once overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country in the pope’s native Latin America.
Those two investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, are heading back to Chile to begin what the Vatican has said is a “healing” mission to Osorno.
By accepting Barros’ resignation on the eve of their arrival, Francis is essentially giving Scicluna and Bertomeu a hand in helping to heal the divisions in a diocese where Barros was never fully accepted.