(Reuters)
– Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, the
archbishop of Santiago and the highest ranking member of the Catholic Church in
Chile, who has been caught up in the country’s sex abuse scandal.
A
Vatican statement on Saturday said the pope had named Bishop Celestino Aós
Braco of the Chilean city of Copiapó, as “apostolic administrator” to
run the Santiago archdiocese until a new archbishop is named to succeed Ezzati.
Ezzati,
77, faces multiple charges of cover up, including some relating to the case of
Oscar Munoz, a former top aide to the Santiago Archbishopric, who is facing
trial on charges he abused and raped at least five children. He denies
wrongdoing.
In
October, he exercised his right to silence after being summoned for questioning
by a state prosecutor over the allegations.
His
resignation brought to eight the number of bishops who have stepped down since
all of the country’s 34 bishops offered their resignations en masse during an
emergency meeting with the pope last May over allegations of a cover-up.
That
meeting was held after Vatican investigators produced a 2,300-page report
alleging that senior Church officials in Chile had failed to act on abuse claims
and in some cases hid them.
The
decision to accept Ezzati’s resignation comes at time of growing criticism over
the Church’s response to a decades-long sexual abuse crisis that has gravely
damaged its standing around the globe.
Victims
of sexual abuse by clergymen say a top-level conference at the Vatican last
month failed to come up with concrete measures to tackle the issue.
An
Australian court last week sentenced former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George
Pell to six years in prison for sexually abusing two choir boys in Melbourne –
the most senior Catholic to be convicted for child sex offenses.
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