A FEW CHILEAN BISHOPS SPEAK OUT

Because Pope Francis has called an entire Episcopal Conference to Rome to discuss the mishandling of sexual abuse accusations within their country, I am giving extraordinary attention to the three day (May 15 through 17) series of meetings the Holy Father is scheduled to have with the Bishops of Chile.

Prior to those meetings, a Chilean Bishop acknowledged the damage inflicted on survivors of clerical sex abuse and the mishandling of cases by Church leaders in the country.

"I am not saying that perhaps we have made mistakes. We have made mistakes," said Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo. 

Bishop Gonzalez, along with Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, met with journalists on the eve of a three-day meeting between Pope Francis and 34 Chilean bishops.

Echoing Pope Francis' April 11 letter to the Chilean bishops, Bishop Ramos told journalists that the Bishops felt "pain and shame" for the abuses committed.

"Receiving information that sexual abuses occurred in our community left many people in shock, because it is something that is unacceptable, intolerable, unjustifiable from every point of view," Bishop Ramos said. 

When asked whether they intend to follow the Pope's lead and ask forgiveness of survivors, Bishop Ramos said attending to the wounds inflicted upon "victims is a great, moral imperative."

"As Jesus said, we must ask forgiveness seven times 70. We are completely willing to ask forgiveness, but we also hope that forgiveness (can) be restorative," he said. 

Bishop Gonzalez told journalists that victims must remain at the center of the upcoming discussions. He also said that he met with countless victims in his diocese and "knew the survivors that met with the Holy Father."

Shortly after the press conference, one survivor tweeted: "I've never seen him before in my life. The truth according to the Bishops of Chile is very different from what we all have lived."

Several Chilean bishops arrived earlier in the day at Rome's Fiumicino airport for the upcoming meeting with Pope Francis. 

Upon his arrival, Bishop Christian Caro Cordero of Puerto Montt told journalists: "I wouldn't say that there is a Church in crisis. I would say that there is a serious problem that must be confronted, but not a Church in crisis."

However, in a statement May 12, the Vatican press office said Pope Francis was concerned by the "circumstances and extraordinary challenges posed by abuses of power -- sexual and of conscience -- that have occurred in the last decades."

The Pope "considers it necessary to profoundly examine the causes and consequences, as well as the mechanisms that in some cases led to a cover-up and serious omissions regarding the victims," the Vatican said.