ROME (ITALY)
Crux
March 23, 2019
By Inés San Martín
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, Archbishop of Santiago, who’s been subpoenaed by a local prosecutor’s office to testify over allegations that he covered up for cases of clerical sexual abuse.
Ezzati’s resignation came on Saturday and was announced by the Vatican’s press office.
To replace him, the pontiff tapped Bishop Celestino Aós Braco, of Copiapó, as Apostolic Administrator “sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis.”
As was the case with the other seven Chilean bishops whose resignations Francis accepted in the past year, the Vatican failed to provide an official explanation for Ezzati’s departure, though it’s widely understood that it has to do not only with his age, as he’s over 75, the mandatory age for bishops to offer their resignation, but also with his role in the country’s massive clerical abuse scandals.
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