Letter from Rome

VATICAN CITY
UCA News

May 29, 2018

By Robert Mickens

Can Pope Francis fix the clergy sex abuse crisis?

The deeply disturbing scandal of clergy sex abuse in Chile and its cover-up by church leaders in the country continues to go from bad to worse.

After a Vatican-led investigation in February, which prompted Pope Francis to call an emergency summit in Rome of the entire Chilean hierarchy, there has been a seemingly non-stop flow of newly revealed cases of sexual crimes against young people.

First, there was a news report of an organized pedophilia (or at least ephebophilia) ring in a diocese north of the capital Santiago where priests have been involved in exchanging pornographic images of minors and information on how to sexually engage with these adolescents.

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