34 Chilean bishops offer to resign over sex abuse scandal

All the Catholic Church's Chilean bishops, in Italy to attend meetings over a sex assault scandal, submitted their resignations Friday in an unprecedented move.


The bishops at the meetings submitted the resignations to Pope Francis. It wasn't immediately clear, though, if they were accepted.

The resignations of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops came at the end of a 3-day meeting in Rome that discussed concerns over the way abuse cases in the South American nation were handled.

The pope previously said he feels "pain and shame" for the "crucified lives" of clergy-related sex abuse victims, and acknowledged he made serious mistakes in his handling of the cases.

In a written statement to Spanish press, the bishops thanked Pope Francis for his "paternal listening and fraternal correction."

"We want to announce that all bishops present in Rome, in writing, have placed our positions in the Holy Father's hands so that he may freely decide regarding each one of us," Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo said on behalf of the Chilean bishops.
  (UPI)
 18/5/18