Pope Removes Two More Chilean Bishops As Vatican Child Abuse Scandal Explodes
The Pontiff's decision to remove the priests was definitive and not open to appeal
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Pope Francis has defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of child sex abuse as the Vatican's pedophilia scandal bubbles to the surface.
The Vatican identified two men as Francisco José Cox Huneeus, archbishop emeritus of the city of La Serena, and Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, archbishop emeritus of Iquique.
According to a statement from the Vatican, the Pontiff's decision to remove the priests was definitive and not open to appeal. I applied as part of Canon (Church) law linked to the crime of sexual abuse of children.
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According to Reuters: Defrocking, officially called “reduced to the lay state,” means they are no longer priests. It is the harshest punishment the Church can inflict on a member of the clergy.
Last month the Pope defrocked Reverend Cristian Precht Bañados, 77, was suspended from church duties in 2012 following an investigation into child abuse.
Bañados defrocking comes as the Catholic church is inundated with countless sexual abuse allegations against clergy spanning decades.
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Last Month, Pope Francis commissioned a shocking four-book study in 2010 as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires attacking child abuse victims and defending a pedophile priest convicted of raping a young boy.
In 2010, Francis, who was known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, requested a lawyer and jurist by the name of Marcelo Sancinett to carry out a 2,600-page study consisting of four volumes for the Argentinian Episcopal Conference to 'discredit' child abuse victims of pedophile priest Father Julio César Grassi.
