Chile's Church Sex Abuse Cases: Pope Francis Apologises for 'Grave Error' in Judgement, Seeks Forgiveness From Victims
In his letter to the Chilean priests, the Pope said that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”
Vatican City, April 12: Pope Francis on Wednesday agreed and accepted that he made “grave errors” in his judgement in the Chile’s Clerical sexual abuse cases and has invited the victims to visit Rome so that he can ask for “forgiveness” from them personally. The Pope had visited Peru and Chile in the month of January after there were accusations on him of failing to handle allegations of clerical sex abuse which took place in both the countries. Pope Francis had initially defended a bishop who was accused of covering up the sexual abuse that had taken place in Chile and come under heavy criticism for it. In his letter to the Chilean priests, the Pope said that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.” He also expressed his sadness and said that scandal had done huge damage to his reputation and the reputation of Chilean church.
The error in judgement that the Pope has spoken about is in the context of him defending Bishop Juan Barros who is a protégé of the Rev. Fernando Karadima. After years of investigation by the church, the Vatican found father Fernando Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in Chile and he was prohibited by the church to participate in any ministerial act. The church also barred him from spiritually guiding any seekers or those visiting church.
The Pope in his letter has said that, “Today I want to speak to you not of assurances, but…the joy, the peace of forgiveness of our sins and the action of his grace.”
Speaking about the report regarding the case submitted to him by Charles Scicluna, the Archbishop of Malta and to Rev. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós, who listened to 64 testimonies, the Pope expressed his gratitude to them and said that, “I sent them to listen from the heart and with humility. Later on, when they delivered to me the report and, in particular, its juridical and pastoral assessment of the gathered information, they acknowledged before me of having felt overwhelmed with the pain of so many victims of grave abuses of conscience and power and, in particular, of the acts of sexual abuse committed by various consecrated men of your country against minors, those who were not taken seriously then and were even robbed of their innocence.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2018 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).