Chilean bishops resign

Abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz recalls a "crazy year" — traveling with other survivors to the Vatican, receiving Francis' apology face-to-face, and more — at SNAP's annual conference in Chicago. 

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of two more Chilean Catholic bishops, bringing to five the number of prelates he has replaced so far as part of the continuing fallout of the country's clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop at the center of Chile's clergy sexual abuse crisis, in the first of what is expected to be a wave of firings to root out what the pontiff has termed a "culture of abuse and cover-up" in the church.

The Vatican announced Pope Francis will soon be sending a letter to "all the People of God" of Chile, in what appears to be a sign that the pope has made a decision about whether to accept the resignations of the country's bishops over their mishandling of clergy sexual abuse.

We say: It's time to revisit the pope's 2015 proposal to establish a tribunal that would hold responsible bishops and religious superiors who mishandle cases of clergy sex abuse.

Though the Vatican has offered proposals to create a specific body charged with hearing cases of episcopal negligence or malfeasance regarding clergy sex abuse, there still remains no clear process — and indeed no clear authority — to assess these charges.

Survivors of clergy abuse and their advocates praised Pope Francis for his confrontation with Chile's bishops over their handling of abuse cases, which led to a mass resignation today, and the survivors and advocates urged the pope not to allow the momentum for reform to slow.

Here is a timeline of events that led up to the May 18 unprecdented mass resignations by the Catholic bishops of Chile after they meet with Pope Francis about their handling of clergy sex abuse cases. 

Vatican City -- Every bishop in Chile offered his resignation to Pope Francis after a three-day meeting at the Vatican to discuss the clerical sexual abuse scandal.