Cautious Hope from Victims and Advocates Following Resignation of Chile’s Bishops

By Michael J. O’Loughlin
America
May 18, 2018

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/05/18/cautious-hope-victims-and-advocates-following-resignation-chiles

Victims of sexual abuse by clergy in Chile are reacting with praise and hope after every Chilean bishop offered to resign over a sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Jose Andres Murillo, a sexual abuse survivor who earlier this month spent hours discussing the scandal with Pope Francis at the Vatican, called the bishops delincuentes (“delinquents”) who deserve to go.

“For dignity, justice and truth, the bishops should leave,” he tweeted. “They didn’t know how to protect the weakest, they exposed them to abuse and then impeded justice. For this, they only deserve to go.”

In another tweet, Juan Carlos Cruz, the main whistleblower in the scandal, said the mass resignation was “unprecedented and good” and that this “will change things forever.”

“This is the pope that I met during my conversations in the Vatican,” Mr. Cruz told Chilean news site Emol on May 17. “I hope all [the bishops] resign and that the church in Chile begins to rebuild with true shepherds and not with these corrupt bishops who commit and cover up crimes, as the document states.”