VATICAN CITY
Crux
Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT
Apr 27, 2018
ROME – Pope Francis’s encounters with three victims of clerical sexual abuse from Chile, whom he once accused of “calumny,” began in the Vatican on Friday. The conversations will take place at different times throughout the weekend and on Monday.
The three survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo, have been invited by Francis to stay in the Santa Marta residence within Vatican grounds where he’s lived since the beginning of his pontificate.
According to a statement released Friday by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, at the pope’s request and in an effort to respect “the confidentiality of the conversations,” no official comment on the substance of conversations Francis will have with the victims of abuser priest Fernando Karadima will be released.
“[The pope’s] priority is to listen to the victims, to ask for their forgiveness and to respect the confidentiality of these conversations,” the statement said, which was issued in Spanish.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.