Vatican City, Apr 11, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness. The pope summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him as well.
Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”
Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”
Please find below CNA’s translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ April 8 letter:
Dear brothers in the episcopate: The reception last week of the final documents which complete the report delivered to me by my two special envoys to Chile on March 20, 2018, with a total of more than 2,300 pages, moves me to write this letter. I assure you of my prayers and I want to share with you the conviction that the present difficulties are also an occasion to re-establish trust in the Church, a trust broken by our errors and sins and in order to heal the wounds that do not cease to bleed in the whole of Chilean society.
Without faith and without prayer, fraternity is impossible. Thus, on this second Sunday of Easter, on the day of mercy, I offer you this reflection with the desire that each one of you accompany me on the inner journey that I have been traveling in recent weeks, so that it would be the Spirit who would guide us with his gift, and not our interests, or even worse, our wounded pride.
Sometimes when so many evils frighten the soul and throw us listlessly into the world buttoned up in our comfortable “winter palaces,” the love of God comes out to meet us and purifies our intentions in order to love as free, mature, and judicious men. When the media shames us, presenting a Church almost always in the darkness of the new moon, deprived of the Sun of justice, we have the temptation of doubting the Paschal victory of the Risen One. I believe that like Saint Thomas the Apostle we must not fear doubt but rather fear the pretension of wanting to see without trusting the testimony of those who heard from the lips of the Lord the most beautiful promise.
Today I want to speak to you not of assurances, but rather of the one thing that the Lord offers us to experience every day: the joy, the peace of forgiveness of our sins and the action of his grace.
In that regard I wish to express my gratitude to His Excellency Charles Scicluna, the Archbishop of Malta and to Rev. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós, official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for his prodigious work in considerately and empathetically listening to the 64 testimonies he recently gathered both in New York and Santiago de Chile. I sent them to listen from the heart and with humility. Later on, when they delivered to me the report and, in particular, its juridical and pastoral assessment of the gathered information, they acknowledged before me of having felt overwhelmed with the pain of so many victims of grave abuses of conscience and power and, in particular, of the acts of sexual abuse committed by various consecrated men of your country against minors, those who were not taken seriously then and were even robbed of their innocence.
The most heartfelt and cordial gratitude we must express as pastors to those who with honesty, courage and the sense of the Church requested a meeting with my envoys and showed them the wounds of their souls. Bishop Scicluna and Rev. Bertomeu have told me how some bishops, priests and deacons, lay men and women of Santiago and Osorno came to Holy Name parish in New York or to the office of Sotero Sanz, in Providencia, with a maturity, respect and kindness that was overwhelming.
In addition, the days following that special mission, have witnessed another meritorious fact that we should keep very much in mind for other occasions, because not only has the climate of confidentiality achieved during the visit been maintained, but at no time has the temptation been yielded to to turn this delicate mission into a media circus. In that regard, I wish to thank the different organizations and media for their professionalism in treating such a delicate case, respecting the right of citizens to the information and the good reputation of the declarants.
Now, after a careful reading of the proceedings of this “special mission,” I believe I can affirm that the collected testimonies speak in a stark way, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess to you that that causes me pain and shame.
Taking all this into account, I am writing to you, meeting together in the 115th Plenary Assembly, to humbly request your collaboration and assistance in discerning the short, mid and long term measures that must be adopted to re-establish ecclesial communion in Chile, with the goal of repairing as much as possible the scandal and re-establishing justice.
I plan to call you to Rome to discuss the conclusions and the aforementioned visit and my conclusions. I have thought of that meeting has a fraternal moment, without prejudices or preconceived ideas, with the only goal of making the truth shine forth in our lives. Regarding the date, I entrust it to the Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference to show me the possibilities.
As for my own responsibility, I acknowledge, and I want you to faithfully convey it that way, that I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, especially because of the lack of truthful and balanced information. Right now I ask forgiveness from all those I offended and I hope to be able to do so personally, in the coming weeks, in the meetings I will have with representatives of the people who were interviewed.
Abide in me: these words of the Lord resound again and again in these day. They speak of personal relationships, of communion, of fraternity which attracts and summons. United to Christ as the branches are to the vine, I invite you graft into your prayers in the coming days a magnanimity that prepares us for the aforementioned meeting and will then allow what we will have reflected on to be translated into concrete actions.
It maybe even be opportune to have the Church in Chile be in ongoing prayer. Now more than ever we cannot fall back into the temptation of verbiage or dwell in “generalities.” These days, let us look at Christ. Let us look at his life and his gestures, especially when he shows compassion and mercy to those who have erred. Let us love in truth, let us ask for wisdom of heart and let us be converted.
Waiting for news from you and asking His Excellency Santiago Silva Retamales, President of the Chilean Conference of Bishops, to publish this letter as quickly as possible, I impart my blessing and ask you to please keep praying for me.
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As established by Christ, let’s do away with His call to action for evangelization.
Why, if the Church does not represent truth by way of the Deposit of Faith, then let’s form ‘moral’ people without an objective reference.
And continue to let China be ‘China’…body counts notwithstanding.
What has Francis wrought? A Christ-less Church. Maybe we ought to just concede and now call ourselves “unitarian-universalist” or “The Society of Ethical Culture.”
Good one. Following the trajectory of Fancis’ logic, both “evil” proselytizing (evangelization that accompliches its purpose) and evangelizing can be done away with since all future synods will enable all three Persons of the Trinity to permanenty settle into their well-earned retirement since the synods will now run the universe.
It will not be long before we have a CCP appointed prelate elevated to Pope. Francis is doing his best to bring it about.
Go forth and make disciples of all nations. Does he believe this?
That would be rigid or something.
The bishop is correct. Our mission is to bear witness to the Gospel while trusting that the Lord will help with the rest.
Which Gospel? The Lord’s or the CCP’s.
Does he even know what the actual Gospel is because if memory serves me right Jesus was quite clear that we must make disciples of all nations and that includes communist countries, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This bishop/deludes himself
Considering he’s a cardinal-elect who was approved by atheists and the CCP – and that he has their blessing to do their bidding at the upcoming Synod Synoodle thing – I suppose he could have done worse. But, yes, that’s praising with faint damnation. He’s no Cardinal Joseph Zen by the remotest stretch of the imagination.
Will no one free us from these vexatious Bishops?
Francis’ reign of error continues unabated.
“without the agenda of turning them into Catholics”
Maybe we should have the agenda of turning this guy into a Catholic.
What? I had to read some of this twice. There is a huge difference between hammering people with dogma, striking fear in their hearts if they reject a “force feed” and sharing with joy the Truth in Love. Rightful evangelization declares the gift of Faith, the conveyance of Hope (eternal life with God, and the assurance of unconditional Love that embodies perfect justice and Divine Mercy. Catholicism is a fusion of all three and necessarily points to Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Why would we hide our (the) lamp, or worse, deny there is one? Come Holy Spirit!
“Go forth and make acquaintances of all nations.”
An idiot with a red zucchetto is still an idiot.
You hit that right on the head.
But let’s not forget who put the red zuchetto on this idiot.
As a retired Pastor, our efforts to reach people groups for Jesus as the only true on God and Creator Savior of the Universe should be to preach Jesus and not some denominational citation. Jesus is not interested in greeting Methodists, Anglicans but born again Christians of all races, colors and faith in Him. Churches since the Reformation should have learned that.
Jesus did not establish denominations. He established one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Read the history of Christianity beginning with the earliest accounts, the Church Fathers. The church founded by the apostles was not Protestant.
What happened in the 16th century was not a reformation but a revolution and a deformation. Had Luther not been terribly proud he would have been a force for good. But instead, hubris got in the way.
John Henry Newman was so right: to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.
And while you may eschew denominations, it all amounts to yourselves being the authority. Not the Bible. No, you are the authority as far as you are concerned. One could say that you are your own Pope.
And as we have free will, you are free to do that.
Do study the history of Christianity beyond the nailing of the 95 thesis all the way back to the 1st century.
Words like “Reformation”, “counter reformation” etc are vestature adopted by a desire to justify differences and the backlash from the establishment. Jesus was radical. He offered freedom to worship His Father without the mill-stone of heritage.
It could be said that the human condition, itself, is in a dynamic state of evolution. Within generations we see changes in attitudes and values. Jesus’ apostles had to iron out individual differences in opinions and interpretations to lay the foundations of the Church. When Thomas refused to believe, he was not chastised by Jesus, but, was offered a reason to believe. Today (unfortunately) there is no one Catholic and Apostolic Church. I could go further than that and say,”Thank God”.
Therefore, I believe that it is not hubris that divides us. But, a genuine desire to understand and worship God. We need to worship Him through a community – with a deep-seated personal devotion.
Christ established a church. And that aint the ever increasing number of denominstions and it aint your version either.
Read scripture and study history.
When people talk about Jesus they need to remember that He came to institute a New and Everlasting Covenant upon which the Catholic Church is founded. In the early years of the Church there was a need to establish the relationship between the Old and New Covenants, which started at the Council of Jerusalem. The coming of Jesus and His New and Everlasting Covenant were predicted in the Old Testament. The New Testament contains warnings to hold fast to the faith.
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To me the Protestant Revolt/Reformation resembles the division of King Solomon’s kingdom because of his faithlessness in caving into his foreign wives. Martin Luther’s role was like that of Jeroboam, who was allowed to divide the kingdom to punish King Solomon for his worldly faithlessness. At the time of the Protestant Revolt/Reformation the Church hierarchy had fallen into worldly faithlessness similar to that of King Solomon when his heart was turned from God by his foreign wives.
Catholic bishops are obliged to teach the Catholic faith and make disciples of all nations. Reading between the lines, it should be obvious what a “code” message or “showing of true colors” is happening here.
“Reading between the lines”, I see a lot of blank space. Each of us exercises basic freedom to read “codes’ and “colours” where others may see nothing. God bless those with eyes to see!
But, when preceded by the desire to see all things as God sees them, we may unearth the valuable gem.
One can understand the distinction of proselytism; yet evangelization is about the love of God, good will, but its spiritual force is the preaching of the Good News for the salvation of souls, and ultimately the love of God as expressed in the Catholic Faith, as Christ founded. This is freedom. Not “restrictive.”