Vatican City • Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignations of two more bishops in Chile as fallout mounted from widespread sex abuse scandals there.
Without citing reasons, the Vatican said the latest to leave their posts were the bishops of San Bartolome de Chillan, Monsignor Carlos Eduardo Pellegrin Barrera, and of San Felipe, Monsignor Cristian Enrique Contreras Molina.
Earlier this year, Chile’s bishops submitted offers to resign en masse to Francis, in response to his belated crackdown on pedophile priests, other sex abuse by clergy there and Chilean church hierarchy’s cover-ups of the wrongdoing.