Chile Bishop Resists Giving Abuse Report to Prosecutors

Associated Press
July 19, 2018

https://apnews.com/6630a47a622e4518884f2c118b4210f9

The head of the Chilean Roman Catholic Church’s abuse prevention committee says he will not deliver a report on sex abuse committed by priests against minors to Chile’s attorney general.

The 2,300-page report was ordered by Pope Francis after he visited the South American country.

Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez said Thursday that the information in the report could harm those who testified in secret if it became known. He said that “the pope is the only recipient of this report.”

Francis received the report earlier this year and then publicly denounced a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in Chile’s Catholic Church. He also said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as the country’s abuse scandal spiraled.