http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-44169484<\/p>\n
They asked forgiveness from victims and the Church for their “grave errors and omissions”.
\nIt was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the resignations.
\nHe had been criticised in Chile for his decision to ordain a bishop who is accused of covering
\nup sexual abuse committed by a priest.<\/p>\n
He said in January that he felt “pain and shame” over the scandal, which has rocked the
\nCatholic Church in Chile.
\nPope meets sex abuse victims in Chile
\nPope ‘slander’ comment angers abuse victims
\nIt is the first time that all the top churchmen in a country have offered to leave their posts like
\nthis.
\nWhat is the scandal about?
\nThe upset centres on Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of using his position in the Catholic
\nChurch to try to block an investigation into his mentor, Catholic priest Fernando Karadima.
\nFr Karadima was an influential priest who was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing
\nyoung boys in the 1970s and 80s and sentenced to a lifetime of “penance and prayer”.
\nHe never faced criminal prosecution in Chile as too much time had passed, but the judge
\nwho heard victims’ testimony in a year-long investigation described them as “truthful
\nand reliable”.
\nPope Francis appointed Bishop Barros three years ago despite the cover-up allegations. He is
\nnot accused of carrying out abuse himself.<\/p>\n
The bishop has repeatedly offered his resignation to the Pope, but it has been rejected
\nseveral times as he was believed to be innocent of the accusations. This time, it is thought his
\noffer to quit will be accepted.
\nThe Pope was widely criticised in January when he defended Bishop Barros during a visit to
\nChile, saying the allegations against him should be classed as “slander” until proven
\notherwise.<\/p>\n
He told a Chilean journalist: “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will
\nspeak. There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is slander. Is this clear?”
\nDays later, the Pope apologised for hurting the victims of clerical sex abuse through his
\ncomments, saying the knowledge “pains me very much”. At the end of January, he sent the
\nVatican’s top expert on sexual abuse to Chile to investigate accusations, citing new
\ninformation.
\nWhy did all the bishops offer to quit?
\nThe bishops offered their resignation by letter after three days of crisis talks at the Vatican,
\nduring which the Pope handed them a 10-page document accusing Chile’s Church hierarchy
\nof negligence in sex abuse cases.
\nSome of the Vatican investigator’s findings were included in the report, according to Chile’s
\nT13 television, which acquired a leaked copy.
\nIn it, the Pope said he felt ashamed that people had been pressured not to fully investigate
\nabuse allegations.
\n“We are all involved, myself in first place, and no one can be exempted by looking to shift the
\nproblem onto the backs of others,” the Pope reportedly wrote.
\nIn their letter, the bishops wrote that their individual futures were in the Pope’s hands, and if
\nhe did not accept their resignations, they would “continue doing our pastoral work”.
\n“In communion with [the Pope] we want to re-establish justice and contribute to repairing the
\ndamage caused,” they wrote.
\nHow have victims responded?<\/p>\n
“This will change things forever,” tweeted Juan Carlos Cruz, who was abused by Fr Karadima
\nin the 1980s.
\nJos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s Murillo, another victim, said Pope Francis should accept the mass resignation
\noffer.
\n“They did not know how to protect the weakest, exposed them to abuses, and then prevented
\njustice,” he wrote on Twitter.
\n“That’s why they all deserve to go.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-44169484 They asked forgiveness from victims and the Church for their “grave errors and omissions”. It was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the resignations. He had been criticised in Chile for his decision to ordain a bishop who is accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by a priest. He said in January that he felt “pain… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1751,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}