CHILEAN BISHOPS RESIGN ENMASS OVER COVER-UP IN MASSIVE CHILD SEX ABUSE SCANDAL

VATICAN, Italy – Chilean Bishops have resigned enmass over leaked document linking them in cover up of massive child abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church in Chile. The bishops announced their decision to resign at a 3-day meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Collectively the Chilean bishops begged for forgiveness from those who have been abused for ‘serious errors and omissions’ and thereafter presented their written resignations to the pope. Pope Francis will in the next few weeks decide whether to accept or reject their resignation. He will have to appoint new bishops to replace them if he accepts their resignation.

The statement was read aloud to the press in Spanish by Bishop Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo, a member of Chile’s national commission for the protection of minors, and in Italian by Bishop Fernando Ramos, auxiliary bishop of Santiago and secretary of the Chilean bishops’ conference.Bishop Gonzalez thanked Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu for what he described as an in-depth investigation of the crisis plaguing the church.

He also thanked those abused for their “perseverance and courage, despite the enormous personal, spiritual, social and familial difficulties they have had to face, “many times in the midst of incomprehension and attacks from their own ecclesial community.” In an interview, González said the bishops will now return to their dioceses and will continue their work as usual until they here from the pope.

In 2011, Karadima was convicted by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of abusing minors and sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude. Allegations of cover-up were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – whom Karadima’s victims accuse of knowing about Karadima’s crimes and failing to act.

Pope Francis initially defended Barros but appologised after his receipt of Scicluna’s report and requested for a meeting with the bishops and survivors. Pople Francis thereafter issued a letter, stressing that there had also been serious flaws in handling ‘grave offenses’.

According to him, the errors have to do particularly with the reception of complaints and “notitiae crimini,” or information on the crimes, which “in not a few cases have been classified very superficially as improbable,” despite bearing signs of being a serious crime.

“In some cases it took months for complaints to be investigated, and in others they were not investigated at all. In still other cases, there was clear evidence of “very serious negligence in the protection of children and vulnerable children on the part of bishops and religious superiors”, the pope said, addding that he was “perplexed and ashamed” to have read statements saying Church officials investigating abuse allegations had been pressured, and that in some cases, documents had been destroyed by those in charge of diocesan archives.

“These actions constitute “an absolute lack of respect for canonical procedure and, even more, reprehensible practices which must be avoided in the future.. In the case of many abusers, problems had been detected while they were in seminary or the novitiate. Scicluna’s investigation contained “serious accusations against some bishops or superiors who sent priests suspected of active homosexuality to these educational institutions.”

“We need a change, we know it, we need it and we desire it,” he said, and encouraged bishops to put Christ at the center. He said in recent history, the Chilean Church has lost this focus, putting itself at the center instead of the Lord. I don’t know what came first,” he said, “if the loss of prophetic strength resulted in the change of center, or the change of center led to the loss of the prophecy that was so characteristic in you.”

“An elite or elitist psychology ends up generating dynamics of division, separation and closed circles that lead to narcissistic and authoritarian spiritualities in which, instead of evangelizing, the important thing is to feel special, different than others, thus making it clear that they are interested in neither Jesus Christ or others,” he said.  

“Messianism, elitism and clericalism are all synonyms for perversion in ecclesial being; and also synonymous with perversion is the loss of the healthy conscience of knowing that we belong to the holy People of God, which precedes us and which – thanks to God – will succeed us.”

“The problems the Chilean Church faces are wider and because of this “it would be irresponsible on our part not to delve into the roots and structures that allowed these specific events to happen and to be perpetuated. It would be a serious omission on our part not to know the roots,” he said, and “to believe that only the removal of people, without anything more, would generate the health of the body,” calling that “a great fallacy.”

“There is no doubt that it will help, and it is necessary to do it, but I repeat, it is not enough, since this thought would dispense us from the responsibility and participation that corresponds to us within the ecclesial body,” the pope said.