Scicluna-Bertomeu Report on the Chilean Catholic Church

After Pope Francis's own defense of a controversial episcopal appointment drew outcry from Chilean abuse survivors in January 2018, he sent Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's senior investigator on clergy sexual abuse, and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu to Chile. The two visited the country twice in 2018, interviewing survivors and clergy, and completed their inquiry on 28 February 2018, compiling a 2,300 page report to the pope. The report documented systemic institutional failure across the Chilean church hierarchy: witness intimidation, the destruction of documents relating to abuse, and the transfer of abusive clergy between assignments without regard for the safety of minors. At meetings held 15 to 17 May 2018, every active Chilean bishop and auxiliary bishop, 34 in total, submitted a written resignation; Pope Francis had accepted 7 of them by 21 September 2018. Francis himself acknowledged making "serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation" after reviewing the report and meeting survivors directly. Two years on, a Chilean survivors' network told Crux that many who had given testimony in 2018 trusting that justice would follow had not been contacted again or given access to information about their own cases.