UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald
by Christopher Altieri
Those who misled the Pope ‘no doubt felt they were protecting the institution’, says Marie Collins
Pope Francis has made a general apology to the victims of sexual abuse and clerical cover-up in Chile and called on the bishops of the country to come and meet him in Rome to discuss the crisis in the Chilean Church.
While the Holy Father did not apologise specifically to the victims he accused of calumny while visiting their country — accusations he repeated to journalists several days later on the return trip to Rome — he did say: “I recognise, and so I ask that you faithfully convey, that I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, owing especially to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”
The Archbishop-Emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz, who was involved in several mishandled abuse cases, including that of the disgraced former celebrity priest, Fernando Karadima, is a member of the Pope’s “C9” Council of Cardinal Advisers. Correspondence between Cardinal Errázuriz and the current Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati, stongly suggests the two men were determined to block the nomination of abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz is one of the survivors Pope Francis accused of calumny in connection with the case of Bishop Juan Barros, whom Cruz accuses of having witnessed, enabled and covered up Karadima’s abuse of him and many other young people.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.