VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency
By Elise Harris
Vatican City, May 2, 2018 / 11:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After meeting with Pope Francis over the weekend, Chilean survivors of clerical sexual abuse said the pontiff was open, sympathetic and deeply impacted by the situation, at one point voicing sorrow for having been “part of the problem.”
Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of Chilean abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima who met with Pope Francis privately Saturday, said he spoke to the pontiff for at least three hours, and found him “sincere, attentive and deeply apologetic for the situation.”
“For me, the pope was contrite, he was truly sorry,” Cruz said. “I felt also that he was hurting, which for me was very solemn…because it’s not often that the pope says sorry to you…he said, ‘I was part of the problem, I caused this and I am apologize.’”
Cruz was joined by fellow abuse survivors James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, each of whom suffered abuse at the hands Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing several minors during the 1980s and 1990s, and subsequently sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.
Chilean civil authorities investigated Karadima but ultimately dropped charges since his crimes were beyond the statute of limitations.
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