ROME (ITALY)
Crux
Mar 16, 2019
By Inés San Martín
Chilean bishops began testifying at the local prosecutor’s office this week on charges that they covered up cases of clerical sexual abuse.
Their questioning comes less than a year after every bishop in the country presented their resignation to Pope Francis, who said that many of them were guilty of cover-up and destroying evidence implicating abusive priests.
In all, eight Chilean bishops have been called to testify – some of them on charges that they themselves sexually abused either minors or seminarians.
At least three of them had court appointments this week. One of these, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, requested to postpone a hearing to request his case be dismissed after news broke earlier in the week that the cardinal had allegedly covered up for Father Tito Rivera, who’s been accused of raping an adult male in the Santiago cathedral.
Ezzati and the archdiocese are now being sued by the man for $500,000.
Francis is expected to accept Ezzati’s resignation soon, but sources with knowledge of the situation have told Crux that the pope is working hard to make sure he has the right replacement, and is at the same time not opposed to Ezzati feeling the edge of the sword of Damocles hanging over his head for a bit longer.
Lay people in Santiago and several members of the local clergy, on the other hand, are demanding the pontiff take action now.
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