Pope Francis received in a private audience the members of the permanent committee of the Episcopal Conference of Chile (CECh), who had not met with the Holy Father since 2019.
“We tell you what we have experienced in these years, after the ecclesial crisis that manifested itself strongly in 2018: the process of ecclesial discernment and how we have been reviewing the scope of our relationships within the Church and the search for more synods, to face the crisis,” the Archbishop of Concepción and general secretary of the CECh, Mons. Sergio Pérez de Arce, explained about the meeting.
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“On the other hand, we have a mission in today’s Chile, with its cultural, social and political particularities, and we share with the Pope how we are addressing the challenges of this mission,” added the prelate about the 45-minute meeting with Francis, as reported by the website Chilean.
The president of the CECh and Archbishop of La Serena, Mons. René Rebolledo, highlighted the welcome of the Holy Father and the other Vatican authorities with whom they have met, such as Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, and thanked the “ valuable guidelines for our episcopal ministry.”
“Without a doubt, the crisis of abuse has been present in all instances, recognizing the progress made, thanks to the commitment of many people, among others, those who serve on the National Prevention Council,” he added.
Also present at the audience with Pope Francis were the vice president of the CECh and Archbishop of Antofagasta, Mons. Ignacio Ducasse Medina, the Archbishop of Santiago, Mons. Fernando Chomali; and the Bishop of San Bernardo, Mons. Juan Ignacio González Errázuriz.
The sexual abuse crisis in 2018 in Chile
In January 2018, Pope Francis visited Chile, in the midst of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
After his trip, he sent Bishop Charles Scicluna and Father Jordi Bartomeu to investigate the situation, after which they prepared a detailed 2,300-page report, which dealt particularly with the accusation of cover-up against the then Bishop of Osorno, Bishop Juan Barros. , regarding the abuse of priest Fernando Karadima.
Between May 15 and 17 of that year, the Holy Father met with the 34 Chilean bishops to discuss the issue.
At the conclusion of the meetings, the Pope gave the bishops a letter in which he thanked them for their availability to “collaborate in all those changes and resolutions that we will have to implement in the short, medium and long term, necessary to restore justice and ecclesial communion”.
A day later, all the prelates placed their positions at their disposal, “in the hands of the Holy Father.” On June 11, 2018, the Pope accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as Bishop of Osorno; of Mons. Cristián Caro Cordero, Archbishop of Puerto Montt; and of Mons. Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar, Bishop of Valparaíso.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.