In response to questions from journalists on the meeting of the Holy Father Francis with some victims of abuse in Chile, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, has issued the following statement:

“Next weekend, the Holy Father will receive at the Casa Santa Marta three victims of abuse committed by the clergy in Chile: respectively Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andrés Murillo.

The Pope thanks them for accepting his invitation: during these days of personal and fraternal encounter, he wishes to ask their forgiveness, share their pain and his shame for what they have suffered and, above all, listen to their suggestions so as to avoid a repetition of these reprehensible facts.

The Pope will receive the victims individually, allowing each one of them all the time necessary to speak.

The Holy Father asks for prayers for the Church in Chile in this painful moment, in the hope that these meetings may take place in an atmosphere of serene trust and be a fundamental step to remedy and forever avoid abuses of conscience and power and, in particular, sexual abuse within the Church.