Pope Francis admitted in a public letter in mid-April that he made “grave errors” in judgment in Chile’s sexual abuse scandal and invited the victims he had discredited to Rome to beg their forgiveness in person.
He also summoned all of Chile’s bishops to the Vatican for an emergency meeting to discuss repairing the damage from the scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation and that of the Chilean church.
The Vatican orders up such emergency visits only on rare occasions, such as when American bishops were summoned in 2002 after the clerical sexual abuse scandal exploded in the U.S. and in 2010 when Irish bishops received a comprehensive dressing down at the Vatican for their botched handling of abuse cases.
