In stunning news coming from Rome today, at the close of their three-day meeting with Pope Francis, all the bishops of Chile asked victims of the country’s abuse scandal for forgiveness.
They asked for the victims’ help going forward and said that at the end of their last session with the Pope May 17, each of the active bishops presented a written resignation.
In comments to the press, Bishop González said for now the bishops will return to their dioceses and will continue their work as usual until hearing from the Pope, who will either reject their resignation, accept it immediately, or put it into effect only once a new bishop is named.
The May 15-17 gathering between Pope Francis and the 34 Chilean bishops, two of whom have already retired, was called for by the Holy Father himself last month following an investigation into abuse cover-up by Church hierarchy in Chile, resulting in a 2,300-page report.
To date, the report has not been made public.
In a scathing letter from the Pope to Chilean bishops that was leaked to Chilean television station T13 May 17, Pope Francis skewered the Chilean prelates for a systematic cover-up of abuse involving not only the destruction of documents, but superficial investigations that led to moving accused abusers to other schools or parishes where they had access to children.
The Pope noted how the investigation found that while some religious had been expelled from their orders due to “immoral conduct,” blaming their “criminal acts” on simple weakness, they were then transferred to other parishes or dioceses and given jobs where they had “daily and direct contact with minors.”
In the letter, the Holy Father said there had also been serious errors in handling cases of “delicta graviora,” meaning “grave offenses,” which “corroborate with some of the worrying information that some Roman Dicasteries have begun to be aware of.”
These errors, he said, 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, the Pope wrote, it took months for complaints to be investigated, and in others they were not investigated at all. In still other cases, he said, there was clear evidence of “very serious negligence in the protection of children and vulnerable children on the part of Bishops and Religious Superiors.”
Pope Francis said 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, Francis said, constitute “an absolute lack of respect for canonical procedure and, even more, reprehensible practices which must be avoided in the future.”
The problems, the Pope said, do not belong to just one group of people, but are the result of a fractured seminary process.
In the case of many abusers, problems had been detected while they were in seminary or the novitiate, he said, noting that Archbishop Scicluna’s investigation contained “serious accusations against some Bishops or Superiors who sent Priests suspected of active homosexuality to these educational institutions.”
In the wider letter, Pope Francis stressed the need to recognize not only the damage done, but also the underlying causes that led to abuse and cover-up and to identify ways to repair the pain and suffering many have endured.
He said the problem is not isolated, but everyone is responsible, “I being the first,” and that no one can be exempted by “moving the problem onto the backs of others.”
“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.
The Bishops of Chile have responded with each active Bishop submitting his resignation to the Pope.
The Church now awaits the Holy Father’s decision to either accept or reject them.
No comments:
Post a Comment