Pope begins purge in Chilean church over sex abuse scandal
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis began purging Chile’s Catholic hierarchy on Monday over an avalanche of sex abuse and cover-up cases, starting with accepting the resignations of the bishop at the center of the scandal and two others.
More heads were expected to roll, given that the scandal has only grown in the weeks since all of Chile’s 30-plus active bishops offered to quit over their collective guilt in failing to protect Chile’s children from priests who raped, groped and molested them.
A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. He named a temporary leader for each diocese.
Bishop Barros, 61, has been at the center of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and someof Chile’s other bishops.
They questioned Bishop Barros’ suitability to lead given 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.
Bishop Barros denied the charge, but he twice offered to resign in the ensuing years. Last month, he joined the rest of Chile’s bishops in offering to step down during an extraordinary Vatican summit. Francis had summoned Chile’s church leaders to Rome after realizing he had made “grave errors in judgment” about Bishop Barros, whom he had defended strongly during a visit to Chile in January.
Many Catholics expect additional disciplinary decisions by Francis in an effort to restore parishioners’ diminished trust in the church.
“The pope himself pointed out that it was necessary to take short, medium and longterm measures in our church,” Jaime Coiro, spokesman for the Chilean Episcopal Conference, told a television station Monday.
In a statement Monday, Bishop Barros asked forgiveness “for my limitations and what I couldn’t handle.” He thanked the pope for his concern for the common good and said he prayed “that one day all the truth will shine.”
Bishop Barros’ removal, which had been expected, was praised by abuse survivors and Catholics in Osorno.
“A new day has begun in Chile’s Catholic Church!” tweeted Juan Carlos Cruz, the abuse survivor who had denounced Bishop Barros for years and pressed the Vatican to take action.
The other two bishops whose resignations were accepted had submitted them prior to the pope’s summit after having reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. But victims had accused both of having botched cases.
Francis realized he had misjudged the Chilean situation after meeting with Mr. Cruz and reading a 2,300-page report compiled by two leading Vatican investigators about the depth of Chile’s scandal.
The investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, head back to Chile on Tuesday to begin a “healing” mission to Osorno.
By accepting Bishop Barros’ resignation, Francis essentially gave Archbishop Scicluna and Monsignor Bertomeu a hand in helping to healthe divisions in a diocese where Bishop Barros never was fully accepted as bishop.
But with the other two resignations, Francis is making clear that the troubles in Chile’s church do not rest on Bishop Barros’ shoulders alone, or on those of the more than 40 other priests and three other bishops trained by the Rev. Fernando Karadima.
The Scicluna-Bertomeu report exposed a scandal that has implicated several religious orders, including priests and brothers in the Franciscans, the Legion of Christ, the Marist Brothers andthe Salesian orders.
It also exposed evidence that the Chilean hierarchy systematically covered up and minimized abuse cases, destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring abuse investigators to discredit abuse accusations and showing “grave negligence” in protecting children from pedophile priests.
Those findings, which leaked to the media while the Chilean bishops were at the Vatican, have opened a Pandora’s Box of new accusations that led Francis to become the first pope to refer to a “culture of abuse and coverup” in the Catholic Church.