Vatican City • A delegation of Chilean bishops met Monday with Pope Francis a year after he threw his papacy into turmoil by defending a Chilean bishop accused of covering for a notorious sexual predator.
The five-member permanent committee of the Chilean bishops’ conference requested Monday’s meeting to brief Francis on its efforts to address the clergy sex abuse crisis in the South American country and chart a future course.
“It’s a long process,” the secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, Bishop Fernando Ramos, told reporters after the meeting, which included lunch and lasted for nearly three hours.