On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that a second group of victims of the priestly sexual abuse scandal that rocked Chile will be meeting with the Pope next month after all the country's bishops offered to resign due to the issue.
Earlier this month, three male victims have already met with the Pope, boys who were abused by a former priest in Santiago during the 1970s to the 1980s. According to the Vatican, the five men who will be meeting with the pope next month have also been abused by the same priest.
The five men will be accompanied by two priests who have assisted them and two lay people and they are scheduled to meet with the pope from June 1 to 3.
The Vatican said, "With these new meetings... Pope Francis wants to show how close he is to the abused priests, help them with their pain and hear their precious views on how to improve current preventative measures and to struggle against abuses in the church."
The disgraced priest in question who have abused these victims is Father Fernando Karadima, who had been found guilty of abusing the victims in 2011 by a Vatican investigation. However, he was not put under trial under civilian law because of the current statute of limitations for sexual cases. Karadima has always denied the allegations against him.
Previously, during a visit in Chile this year, the Pope had doubted the veracity of the victims who accused one of its bishops covering up for Karadima and have done nothing against him. However, the Pope had sent one of its top sexual abuse investigators to check into the allegations and when he read the report, the Pope had called Chile's bishops to discuss the case and accused them of grave negligence.
The Pope has yet to make a remark regarding the resignation of the 34 bishops.
