Pope Francis is to meet with a second group of victims of Chile’s abusive priest, Fr Fernando Karadima, the Vatican has announced.
According to a statement released on 23 May by the Holy See’s Press Office, a group of nine, including seven priests and two lay people, will meet with Francis in the Casa Santa Marta between 1-3 of June.
Fr Karadima has been cited not only for sexually abusing minors and young men, but also for abuses of power and conscience. At least some of the priests who are coming to the Vatican say they’re survivors of the latter.
The Vatican found Fr Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in 2011 and ordered him to retire to a life of “penitence and prayer”.
“With this new meeting, scheduled a month ago, Pope Francis wants to show his closeness to abused priests, to accompany them in their pain and to listen to their valuable views to improve the current preventive measures and the fight against abuses in the Church,” the statement said.
“These priests and lay people represent all the victims of abuses by the clergy in Chile, but it is not ruled out that similar initiatives may occur in the future,” the Holy See continued.
The statement noted that this second set of meetings with survivors would conclude “the first phase” of meetings that the Pope wanted to have with victims of the “abusive system” established decades ago in Fernando Karadima’s parish, Sagrado Corazón de Providencia (“El Bosque”) in Chile.
The statement, published originally in Spanish, said all of the meetings will take place in an atmosphere of “trust and confidentiality.”
These meetings come a month after Francis met with three of Fr Karadima’s victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo in the Vatican.
Last week, the Pope ordered all 34 of the country’s bishops to the Vatican to discuss the crisis, after which every bishop offered his resignation to Francis.
The dramatic announcement followed the leaking of a 10-page letter, reportedly handed to the bishops at the start of the discussions, in which Francis said removing bishops may be needed but would not be sufficient to solve the abuse crisis in Chile. In the letter Francis cites clericalist, elitist and authoritarian attitudes dominating in the Church and an urgent need to put Christ back at the “ecclesial centre”.
Francis has yet to accept the bishops’ resignations.
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