{"id":2926,"date":"2018-04-11T20:41:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T03:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2018-04-11T20:41:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T03:41:19","slug":"pope-admits-he-made-grave-errors-in-chile-sex-abuse-case-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2926","title":{"rendered":"“Pope admits he made \u2018grave errors\u2019 in Chile sex abuse case”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara, AP,<\/span> April 11, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

VATICAN CITY \u2014 Pope Francis admitted Wednesday he made \u201cgrave errors\u201d in judgment in Chile\u2019s sex abuse scandal and invited the victims he had discredited to Rome to beg their forgiveness.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinary public letter, Francis also summoned all of Chile\u2019s bishops to the Vatican for an emergency meeting in the coming weeks to discuss repairing the damage from the scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation and that of the Chilean church.<\/p>\n

The Vatican orders up such emergency visits only on rare occasions, such as when American bishops were summoned in 2002 after the clerical sex abuse scandal exploded in the U.S. and in 2010 when Irish bishops received a comprehensive Vatican dressing down for their botched handling of abuse cases.<\/p>\n

Francis blamed a lack of \u201ctruthful and balanced information\u201d for his missteps in judging the case of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile\u2019s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Francis strongly defended the bishop during his January visit to Chile despite accusations by victims that Barros had witnessed and ignored their abuse.<\/p>\n

In Chile and during an airborne press conference returning to Rome, Francis accused the victims of \u201ccalumny\u201d for pressing their case against Barros, demanded they present \u201cproof\u201d of their claims and revealed he had twice rejected Barros\u2019 resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am convinced he is innocent,\u201d the pope insisted.<\/p>\n

After causing an outcry, Francis sent the Vatican\u2019s most respected sex abuse investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to look into the scandal.<\/p>\n

While his letter didn\u2019t reveal his ultimate conclusions about Barros, Francis made clear that he and the bishops have a lot of work to do to turn the Chilean church around.<\/p>\n

In words that laid bare his simmering anger, Francis said they must \u201cre-establish confidence in the church, confidence that was broken by our errors and sins, and heal the wounds that continue to bleed in Chilean society.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Chilean bishops insisted they had been truthful to Francis about the need to get rid of Barros \u2014 they had proposed he resign and take a year sabbatical \u2014 and victims\u2019 advocates said Francis had only himself to blame, since the accusations against Barros were well known and well-founded.<\/p>\n

Anne Barrett Doyle, of BishopAccountability.org, an online abuse resource, noted an Associated Press report that Francis received a personal letter about Barros\u2019 misdeeds from a victim in 2015, but seemingly chose to ignore it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Francis was misinformed or inadequately informed, it was because he chose to be so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Karadima was a charismatic preacher who was removed from ministry by the Vatican for sexually abusing minors and sentenced in 2011 to a lifetime of penance and prayer. Karadima had long been a darling of the Chilean hierarchy, and his victims have accused church leaders of covering up his crimes to protect the church\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

Scicluna and his colleague, the Rev. Jordi Bertomeu, spent nearly two weeks in Chile and New York earlier this year interviewing Karadima\u2019s victims, who for years have denounced Barros\u2019 silence and were stunned by Francis\u2019 strong defense of him.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Francis thanked the 64 people who testified and had the courage to bare the \u201cwounds of their souls\u201d for the sake of truth. After reading the 2,300-page dossier his envoys prepared, Francis affirmed the victims \u201cspoke in a stark way, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI confess this caused me pain and shame,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my part, I recognize – and so I want it to be faithfully transmitted – that I have fallen in grave errors of judgment and perception of the situation, especially due to the lack of truthful and balanced information,\u201d Francis wrote. \u201cFrom now on I ask forgiveness of all those I offended and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Barros\u2019 three main accusers said they appreciated Francis request for forgiveness and were weighing his invitation to meet. They said they would continue fighting for reparation and forgiveness \u201cuntil zero tolerance about abuse and cover-up in the church becomes a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Chile\u2019s bishops, and members of Francis\u2019 own sex abuse advisory board, had questioned Barros\u2019 suitability to lead a diocese given claims by Karadima\u2019s victims that Barros stood by and did nothing while Karadima groped them.<\/p>\n

Francis overrode their concerns and appointed Barros bishop of the southern Chilean diocese of Osorno in 2015, saying the church had investigated the claims against him and found them to be baseless.<\/p>\n

Osorno\u2019s lay Catholics and many Osorno priests rejected him, and they greeted Francis\u2019 letter Wednesday with graciousness, accepting his request for forgiveness but renewing their demand for Barros\u2019 removal.<\/p>\n

The head of the Chilean bishops\u2019 conference, Monsignor Santiago Silva, insisted the Chilean church had provided only truthful information to Francis about Barros. But, he added, \u201cobviously we didn\u2019t do everything we should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other clerics more favorable to Barros had Francis\u2019 ear: the Vatican ambassador, who has long been hostile to Barros\u2019 accusers; the retired archbishop of Santiago, who has accused Cruz of being a liar and \u201cserpent\u201d; and an old Spanish Jesuit friend who evaluated Barros years ago.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield reported this story at the Vatican and AP writer Eva Vergara reported from Punta de Tralca, Chile.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara, AP, April 11, 2018 VATICAN CITY \u2014 Pope Francis admitted Wednesday he made \u201cgrave errors\u201d in judgment in Chile\u2019s sex abuse scandal and invited the victims he had discredited to Rome to beg their forgiveness. In an extraordinary public letter, Francis also summoned all of Chile\u2019s bishops to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}