VATICAN CITY
Associated Press
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The three main protagonists in denouncing Chile’s sex abuse scandal will meet with Pope Francis on April 28-29 and will stay as his guests at the Vatican hotel where he lives, one of the men told The Associated Press.
Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Chile’s most famous predator priest, said he and his colleagues had agreed to Francis’ invitation to come to Rome so the pope could personally apologize for having discredited them during his recent trip to Chile.
In a telephone interview, Cruz said the three men would not allow the meeting to become a public relations coup for the Vatican. He said he would tell Francis of the “horror of abuse and the horror of the cover-up” that church leaders have committed over decades, and how they have discredited and defamed victims who went public.
Francis himself “was on that path, unfortunately” when he accused victims of “calumny” for having repeatedly denounced the behavior of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, Cruz said. But he said Francis appeared to have “opened his eyes to a reality … about thousands of lives who have been crucified” by priests who rape and fondle children.
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