Pope Francis denounces 'culture of abuse, cover-up'
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Vatican City: Pope Francis has become the first pope to publicly denounce a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in the Catholic Church, saying he is ashamed neither he nor Chile’s Catholic leaders ever truly listened to victims as the country’s abuse scandal spiralled.
“Never again,” Francis says in a pastoral letter to the Chilean faithful on the eve of another weekend he will spend listening to victims of Chile’s most notorious predator priest.
The letter was issued on Thursday, the same day the Vatican announced its top abuse investigators were returning to Chile on a new mission.
In the eight-page letter, Francis once again thanks victims for their “valiant perseverance” in denouncing abuse and searching for the truth “even against all hopes or attempts to discredit them”.
He includes himself among the guilty in failing to actually accompany victims, saying, “With shame I must say that we didn’t know how to listen or respond in time.”
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