Pope to seek ‘mechanisms’ that led to cover up in meeting with Chilean bishops

ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 12, 2018

ROME – Pope Francis will be meeting with 33 Chilean bishops next week to look into the “mechanisms that have led to the cover up and grave omissions towards” Chilean victims of clerical sexual abuse.

According to a Vatican statement, Francis wanted to meet with the bishops “interpellated by the circumstances and the extraordinary challenges that pose the abuse of power, sexual [abuse] and [abuses] of conscience that have occurred in Chile in the last decades.”

The pope, the statement continues, “thinks it’s necessary to look into causes and consequences, as well as the mechanisms that have led to the cover up and grave omissions towards the victims.”

The meetings between the pope and the Chilean bishops will take place in the Vatican May 14-17. Also present will be Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

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