SANTIAGO: Pope Francis publicly expressed “pain and shame” on Tuesday over the rape and molestation of children by priests in Chile and later listened, prayed and cried at a private meeting with victims.
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the meeting took place in the Vatican embassy in Santiago.
“No one else was present. Only the pope and the victims,” the spokesman said. “This was so they could speak of their suffering to Pope Francis, who listened to them and prayed and cried with them.”
It was only the second time on his overseas trips that the pope has met victims of sexual abuse, although he has met some at the Vatican. The last meeting on a trip was in Philadelphia in 2015.
Burke declined to give details, but his statement came at the end of an intense day for the pope, during which he spoke of sexual abuse twice, once asking forgiveness for abuses he said had done “irreparable damage” to victims.
The Argentine pontiff made his first remarks at the presidential palace, La Moneda, an unusual choice because the pope usually talks about sexual abuse to Church leaders and not politicians.
But the scandal has gripped the nation, prompting many politicians to criticize the Church in the staunchly Catholic country, where the crisis has scarred its credibility.
“Here I feel bound to express my pain and shame at the irreparable damage caused to children by some ministers of the Church,” he said, drawing sustained applause, including from President Michelle Bachelet and diplomats.
“I am one with my brother bishops, for it is right to ask for forgiveness and make every effort to support the victims, even as we commit ourselves to ensuring that such things do not happen again,” he said.
The crisis centered on the pope’s appointment in 2015 of Bishop Juan Barros to head the small diocese of Osorno in south-central Chile.
Barros, who attended a papal Mass on Tuesday, has been accused of protecting his former mentor, Father Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. Karadima has denied the allegations, and Barros said he was unaware of any wrongdoing.
“There have been many lies told about my situation,” he told Reuters after the Mass.
It was not clear if the victims the pope met were molested by Karadima. Burke would only say that they were all victims of abuse by priests.
Along with growing secularization, the scandal has hurt the standing of a Church that defended human rights during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
A poll by Santiago-based thinktank Latinobarometro this month showed that the number of Chileans calling themselves Catholics fell to 45 percent last year, from 74 percent in 1995.
Francis returned to the theme of abuse on Tuesday evening in an address to priests and nuns in Santiago’s cathedral. He spoke of “this great and painful evil” which had led victims and their families to “see the trust they had placed in the Church’s ministers betrayed.”
But he said he also understood the pain of priests and nuns who had nothing to do with abuse and had been unfairly tainted, including being “insulted in the metro or walking on the street.”
ANTI-POPE GRAFFITI
At least eight Catholic churches were attacked in Chile in the past week.
Police in riot gear dispersed some 200 demonstrators trying to make their way to a park in Chilean capital Santiago, where the pope — the first Latin American head of the Church — said Mass for some 400,000 people.
Hours after the pope arrived in Chile on Monday, two small wooden churches were burned to the ground near Temuco, where Francis is due to visit on Wednesday.
The indigenous Mapuche in the area accuse the state and private companies of taking their ancestral lands. The Mapuche say the pope’s ceremony will be held on seized land.
A church in the capital was attacked during the night, causing minor damage. Vandals burned Chilean and Vatican flags at the site and tossed pamphlets with threats against the pope.
At one attack which involved a homemade bomb, a pamphlet was left that read: “Pope Francis, the next bomb will be in your robe.”
Graffiti scrawled on one Santiago church read: “Burn the pope.”
About 10 blocks from Tuesday’s Mass, riot police clashed with people protesting against the sexual abuse scandal and the $17 million cost of the papal visit. “Complicit Pedophiles,” read one of the banners.
But the welcome most Chileans have given Francis has been warm, with tens of thousands lining the streets.
Pope meets victims of child sexual abuse in Chile, ‘cries with them’
Pope meets victims of child sexual abuse in Chile, ‘cries with them’
Migrant rescue NGO saves 25 people off Libyan coast
- Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
MARSEILLE: French migrant rescue group SOS Mediterranee brought 25 people stranded off the Libyan coast aboard its Ocean Viking vessel on Sunday, the NGO said.
Those rescued, including three women and seven minors, are “currently being cared for by the Red Cross and SOS Mediterranee teams” aboard the Ocean Viking, the Marseille-based group said in a statement.
Five of the minors are unaccompanied while two of the children are aged under four, the statement added.
The boat in distress was spotted thanks to an alert issued by Alarm Phone, a number used by migrants who run into trouble while attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing in hope of a better life in Europe.
Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
That toll follows the 2,360 people who died across the whole of 2024. The vast majority of the victims died in the central Mediterranean, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
UK seeks to scale back reviews that delay new housing projects
- Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth
LONDON: Britain set out plans late on Sunday to scale back lengthy public reviews that can delay housing developments, as part of its goal to get 1.5 million homes built in the next five years.
The housing ministry said it would hold a consultation over reducing the number of public agencies and civic groups whose views must be sought over new housing, including groups which represent sporting organizations, theaters and historic gardens.
Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth and for contributing to broader economic weakness.
In 2023, 193,000 homes were built across the United Kingdom and the construction industry has not exceeded the 300,000-a-year pace needed to meet the new government’s target since 1977.
“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said.
Further legislation on planning reforms is due later in the week.
Britain’s housing and local government ministry, which Rayner heads, said more than 25 agencies now had a legal right to be consulted on housing developments, some of which often objected by default or insisted on expensive modifications.
The ministry cited the example of how the conversion of an office block into 140 apartments was delayed after a sports body judged insufficient expert advice had been sought over whether a 3-meter-high (10 ft) fence was enough to protect residents from cricket balls struck from an adjacent sports ground.
Around 100 such disputes a year had to be resolved by ministers, the government said.
Under the new proposals, local planning authorities would also be instructed to narrow the basis on which other bodies could object and stick more closely to standard rules and deadlines.
Japan’s worst wildfire in 50 years brought under control
- The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years
TOKYO: Japan’s worst wildfire in more than half a century, which killed at least one person, has been brought under control, the mayor of the northern city of Ofunato said on Sunday.
The fire had raged in the mountains around the rural region since February 26, killing at least one person, damaging at least 210 buildings and forcing more than 4,200 residents to flee their homes, local officials said.
“Following an aerial survey, we assessed that the fire no longer posed the risk of further spread. I declare that the fire is now under control,” Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told a news conference.
The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years.
It surpassed the 2,700 hectares burnt by a 1975 fire on Hokkaido island.
Wet weather that began on Wednesday following a record dry period helped firefighting efforts.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inch) of rainfall in February, breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and far below the average of 41 millimeters.
The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since a peak in the 1970s.
Wildfires in Japan tend to occur between February and May, when the air dries out and winds pick up. There have been around 1,300 a year in recent years.
UN humanitarian agency reports rise in attacks in Congo
- Security in Goma is threatened by “a resurgence of criminal acts including burgling of homes, thefts and attacks,” it said, adding that hospitals and schools had also been forced to close in other areas
KINSHASA: Escalating attacks have struck hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo during the ongoing anti-government assault by the armed group M23, the UN’s humanitarian agency said.
M23 fighters backed by Rwandan troops have made major advances in the region since January, seizing the key cities of Goma and Bukavu and displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to the UN.
“Between March 1 and 3, several hospitals were targeted by armed actors in an escalation of violence against medical centers and health personnel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, or OCHA, said in a report.
Security in Goma is threatened by “a resurgence of criminal acts including burgling of homes, thefts and attacks,” it said, adding that hospitals and schools had also been forced to close in other areas.
It said at least four civilians were killed in fighting between M23 and rival groups in the Masisi district between Feb. 18 and 25, and more than 100,000 people were newly displaced in Lubero to the north.
DR Congo’s government accuses Rwanda of backing M23 to seize mineral-rich territory.
Rwanda has denied involvement in the conflict and says it faces a threat from ethnic Hutu fighters in DR Congo.
US pulls non-emergency staff from South Sudan after clashes
- South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended its five-year civil war in 2018 with the power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals Kiir and Machar
NAIRIBI: The US has ordered all non-emergency staff in South Sudan to leave, the State Department said on Sunday, as rising tensions provoke international concern.
A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar has been threatened by recent clashes between their allied forces in the northeastern Upper Nile State.
On Friday, a UN helicopter came under attack during a rescue mission, which killed a crew member. An army general also died during the operation, the UN said.
BACKGROUND
President Salva Kiir urged calm and told citizens there would be no return to war, but international observers sounded the alarm.
“Due to the risks in the country, on March 8, 2025, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees from South Sudan,” the State Department said on Sunday.
“Armed conflict is ongoing and includes fighting between various political and ethnic groups. Weapons are readily available to the population.”
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended its five-year civil war in 2018 with the power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals Kiir and Machar.
But the president’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir County, in Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice president.
Kiir urged calm late on Friday and told citizens there would be no return to war, but international observers sounded the alarm.
The UN human rights commission for South Sudan warned on Saturday that the country was seeing an “alarming regression” that threatened to undo years of progress to peace.
The International Crisis Group, a think tank, meanwhile, said: “South Sudan is slipping rapidly toward full-blown war.”
It warned the country risked “large scale ethnic massacres if the situation is not soon contained.”
