All of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops have offered Pope Francis their resignations in the wake of a child sex scandal and cover-up.

They asked forgiveness from victims and the Church for their "grave errors and omissions".

It was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the resignations.

He had been criticised in Chile for his decision to ordain a bishop who is accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by a priest.

He said in January that he felt "pain and shame" over the scandal, which has rocked the Catholic Church in Chile.

The bishops offered their resignation by letter after three days of crisis talks at the Vatican, during which the Pope handed them a 10-page document accusing Chile's Church hierarchy of negligence in sex abuse cases.

The bishops wrote that their individual futures were in the Pope's hands, and if he did not accept their resignations, they would "continue doing our pastoral work".
"In communion with (the Pope) we want to re-establish justice and contribute to repairing the damage caused," they wrote.

Bishop Juan Barros, who Pope Francis appointed three years ago, is accused of using his position in the Catholic Church to try to block an investigation into the actions of his mentor, Catholic priest Fernando Karadima.
Fr Karadima was an influential priest who was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing young boys and was ordered to do penance.

Bishop Barros has repeatedly offered his resignation to the Pope. It has been rejected several times as he was believed to be innocent of the accusations, but this time it is thought the resignation will be accepted.

On Thursday three other bishops offered their resignations ahead of Friday's statement from all the bishops.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-44169484

Catholic priests and these sex scandals . . . Let these people marry na

SolutionsGuy:
Catholic priests and these sex scandals . . . Let these people marry na

Pentecostalism also has its fair share of sex scandals. Marriage is not the solution... I'd suggest you ask God to take away your sexual organs. The Holy Spirit is obviously not working.

HappyPagan:

Pentecostalism also has its fair share of sex scandals. Marriage is not the solution... I'd suggest you ask God to take away your sexual organs. The Holy Spirit is obviously not working.

Child sex scandals, abuses and cover up have been around Catholic priests worldwide for decades.
It will be childish to start diverting it to Catholicism vs Pentecostalism. No doubt that having wives would minimize it drastically.

SolutionsGuy:


Child sex scandals, abuses and cover up have been around Catholic priests worldwide for decades.

True. No one's denying that.

SolutionsGuy:

It will be childish to start diverting it to Catholicism vs Pentecostalism.

Agree again. My point was even the married Pentecostals have their own scandal too... it's a libido thing. Just cut off the damn testicles and be faithful to God forever.

SolutionsGuy:

No doubt that having wives would minimize it drastically.

Just a waste of good beautiful women. They won't be able to satisfy the sexual lust serving the Lord inspires.

SolutionsGuy:
Catholic priests and these sex scandals . . . Let these people marry na

And you think your married Pentecostal Pastors are free from sexual scandals? OGA, a Randy human is a randy human.

SolutionsGuy:


Child sex scandals, abuses and cover up have been around Catholic priests worldwide for decades.
It will be childish to start diverting it to Catholicism vs Pentecostalism. No doubt that having wives would minimize it drastically.

you haven't been paying lot of attention to the news.

child sex scandal has been everywhere, in Protestant churches, among Jehovah's witness name them, in the U.S it is said that the amount of sex abuse cases in Protestant churches is even greater.... it has been on a steady rise since the 1970s, the Catholic church just got theirs under control in 2005 and such issues have been on a decline since then.

it isn't even so much a Christian problem as it is a world problem. in 75% of all child sex abuse cases, the offender is a family member, usually the father or uncles etc and most of them are married people another 20 or so % is teachers and couches and such, many of them married.

in fact in child sex abuse cases a married abuser seems as likely to abuse kids as a unmarried person if not even more.


so no, marriage doesn't stop an abuser, he or she will abuse whether married or not. celibacy doesn't create abusers.

it isn't a Protestant vs Catholic problem it is a world problem, for some reason there is a steady rise in abusers both family member, teacher, coach, priest, pastor, married or unmarried.


if an abuser is married it only becomes worse because he will also sexually abuse his kids.

Ubenedictus:


you haven't been paying lot of attention to the news.

child sex scandal has been everywhere, in Protestant churches, among Jehovah's witness name them, in the U.S it is said that the amount of sex abuse cases in Protestant churches is even greater.... it has been on a steady rise since the 1970s, the Catholic church just got theirs under control in 2005 and such issues have been on a decline since then.

it isn't even so much a Christian problem as it is a world problem. in 75% of all child sex abuse cases, the offender is a family member, usually the father or uncles etc and most of them are married people another 20 or so % is teachers and couches and such, many of them married.

in fact in child sex abuse cases a married abuser seems as likely to abuse kids as a unmarried person if not even more.


so no, marriage doesn't stop an abuser, he or she will abuse whether married or not. celibacy doesn't create abusers.

it isn't a Protestant vs Catholic problem it is a world problem, for some reason there is a steady rise in abusers both family member, teacher, coach, priest, pastor, married or unmarried.


if an abuser is married it only becomes worse because he will also sexually abuse his kids.

I don't think you have the statistics to back this up, especially the bolded.

Ubenedictus:


you haven't been paying lot of attention to the news.

child sex scandal has been everywhere, in Protestant churches, among Jehovah's witness name them, in the U.S it is said that the amount of sex abuse cases in Protestant churches is even greater.... it has been on a steady rise since the 1970s, the Catholic church just got theirs under control in 2005 and such issues have been on a decline since then.

it isn't even so much a Christian problem as it is a world problem. in 75% of all child sex abuse cases, the offender is a family member, usually the father or uncles etc and most of them are married people another 20 or so % is teachers and couches and such, many of them married.

in fact in child sex abuse cases a married abuser seems as likely to abuse kids as a unmarried person if not even more.


so no, marriage doesn't stop an abuser, he or she will abuse whether married or not. celibacy doesn't create abusers.

it isn't a Protestant vs Catholic problem it is a world problem, for some reason there is a steady rise in abusers both family member, teacher, coach, priest, pastor, married or unmarried.


if an abuser is married it only becomes worse because he will also sexually abuse his kids.

Interesting theory, though with some truth.