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| Pope Francis speaking to children at the Vatican |
All of Chile’s 34 Roman Catholic bishops
have offered Pope Francis their resignations in the wake of a child sex
scandal and cover-up.
They asked for forgiveness from victims and the Church for their “grave errors and omissions”.
They asked for forgiveness from victims and the Church for their “grave errors and omissions”.
It was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the resignations.
He had been criticised in Chile for his decision to ordain a bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by a priest.
He said in January that he felt “pain and shame” over the scandal, which has rocked the Catholic Church in Chile.
The bishops offered their resignation by
letter after three days of crisis talks at the Vatican, during which
the Pope handed them a 10-page document accusing Chile’s Church
hierarchy of negligence in sex abuse cases.
The bishops wrote that their individual
futures were in the Pope’s hands, and if he did not accept their
resignations, they would “continue doing our pastoral work”.
“In communion with (the Pope) we want to re-establish justice and contribute to repairing the damage caused,” they wrote.
Bishop Juan Barros, who Pope Francis
appointed three years ago, is accused of using his position in the
Catholic Church to try to block an investigation into the actions of his
mentor, Catholic priest Fernando Karadima.
Fr Karadima was an influential priest
who was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing young boys and
was ordered to do penance.
Bishop Barros has repeatedly offered his
resignation to the Pope. It has been rejected several times as he was
believed to be innocent of the accusations, but this time it is thought
the resignation will be accepted.
On Thursday three other bishops offered their resignations ahead of Friday’s statement from all the bishops. (BBC)