VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis is sending the Catholic Church’s top sexual abuse investigator to Chile to look into accusations a bishop covered up crimes against minors, just days after the pope defended him.
A Vatican statement on Tuesday said new information had emerged about Bishop Juan Barros and that the investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, would go to “listen to those who want to submit information in their possession”.
“We were surprised by the Pope’s decision, because we spent three years trying to reach him to put an end to this issue,” said Juan Carlos Claret, a spokesman for Osorno parishioners. “This shows that the pope is responding more to the pressure from the media than he is to the faithful.”
While the pope, who met two victims in Chile during the trip, has vowed “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse, a planned Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up abuse or mishandling cases has not started.
The much-touted commission O‘Malley heads has been hit by defections by high-profile non-clerical members who quit in frustration over what they said was lack of progress.
Additional reporting by Dave Sherwood in Santiago; Editing by Crispian Balmer, Catherine Evans and Andrew Heavens