Pope to host abuse survivors from Chile

Francis plans to ask for forgiveness, suggestions

ROME — Pope Francis will host three victims of Chile’s sexual abuse scandal this weekend at the Vatican hotel where he lives, to ask their forgiveness and listen to their suggestions, the Vatican announced Wednesday, as he tries to make amends for voicing doubts about their accusations.

The three men, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo, have been among the most vocal survivors of abuse by priests in Chile. In a statement, the Vatican said the pope would meet with each man individually, “allowing each one to speak for as long as they wish.”

Though the past three popes have apologized to victims of sexual abuse in many countries, the situation in Chile had become especially venomous, forcing Francis to reverse his public stance on specific accusations.

Until recently, the pope had defended Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who victims say witnessed and covered up abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, the country’s most notorious pedophile priest. In 2011, a Vatican tribunal convicted Karadima and sentenced him to a life of prayer and penitence.

Even as accusations of complicity against Barros mounted, the pope appointed him bishop of Osorno, in southern Chile, in 2015, despite opposition from some in the Chilean church hierarchy and protests among the faithful.

Returning from a trip to Chile in January, Francis continued to support Barros, accusing victims of “calumny” because of a lack of evidence, and saying, “I am also convinced he is innocent.”

The pope’s remarks prompted outrage from survivors and their supporters, and he responded by sending Archbishop Charles Scicluna, one of the Vatican’s top investigators of sexual abuse, to investigate the Chilean claims.

Scicluna’s 2,300-page report prompted Francis’ turnaround.

This month, the pope issued an extraordinary apology, admitting “grave errors” in how sexual abuse cases had been handled in Chile. He also invited the three victims to his home.

“During these days of fraternal and personal encounter,” the pope “wishes to ask their forgiveness, share in their pain and his shame for what they have suffered, and above all, listen to all their suggestions, so that these reprehensible facts never occur again,” the Vatican said Wednesday.

The pontiff has summoned Chile’s 32 bishops to meet at the Vatican in May. The Holy See said Wednesday that the pope had asked people to pray for the church in Chile, and for his meetings with the three victims to “be a fundamental step to remedy and forever avoid” sexual abuses.

Cruz, Hamilton and Murillo will stay at the Casa Santa Marta, which houses clergy members who have business at the Vatican. Since his election in 2013, Francis has made it his primary residence, rather than living in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace.

In an interview this week, Cruz said that during his weeklong stay at the Vatican he would speak to the pope about “the pain and suffering of so many people,” including of friends who had killed themselves. “I have to make sure our case is not treated as an isolated case,” he said.