ROME
Crux
Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT
May 17, 2018
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comments from Cardinal Javier Errázuriz.
ROME – Spanish Father Jordi Bertomeu, perhaps the Vatican figure other than Pope Francis who knows the Chilean church best right now, told reporters Thursday that “history is being made” in Rome this week in an extraordinary summit between the pope and 34 Chilean bishops.
“We are at a very particular moment for the universal Church, not only for Chile,” Bertomeu told reporters. “What has happened is not normal, to call [in] an entire bishops conference. If I were you [a journalist], I would deduce that it’s necessary to expect some measures [to be taken[. I believe we’re making history.”
Bertomeu is the lesser-known of the two men Pope Francis tasked with carrying out a deep dive into the situation of the Catholic Church in Chile, originally to investigate the case of Bishop Juan Barros, accursed of covering up for his mentor, who’s been found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors.
Due to circumstance, Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ended taking lead after Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna was hospitalized in Chile for emergency gall bladder surgery.
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