Pope Francis has replaced Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati , the embattled archbishop of Santiago, Chile, after he became embroiled in the country's spiraling sex abuse and cover-up scandal.
Pope Francis wears his glasses as he arrives in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican for a audience with students, family and teachers of the Barbarigo catholic school of Padua, Saturday, March 23, 2019. Pope Francis on Saturday replaced Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati as archbishop of Santiago, Chile, after he was placed under criminal investigation in the country's spiraling church sex abuse and cover-up scandal.
The 77-year-old Ezzati had submitted his resignation to Francis two years ago when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. But Francis kept him on, and Ezzati became the flashpoint of abuse survivors' ire for mishandling several cases of abuse. Francis himself became embroiled in the scandal in Chile after initially discrediting victims during his 2018 trip to the country, sparking a crisis in confidence in the Chilean hierarchy and his own leadership.
The Chile abuse scandal first erupted in 2009, when victims publicly accused one of the country's most prominent preachers, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, of molesting them for years. Errazuriz initially shelved an investigation, only to have the Vatican eventually convict Karadima in a church tribunal.
Pollsters have cited the Karadima scandal as the tipping point in the Chilean church's progressive loss of credibility among ordinary Chileans.
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