All of Chile's bishops have offered to resign over a sex abuse and cover-up scandal, in what is one of the biggest shake-ups in the Catholic Church's long-running abuse saga.

At the end of an emergency summit with Pope Francis, 31 active bishops said they had signed a document offering to resign and that they were putting their fate in the hands of the Pope.

Members of Chile's bishops conference Luis Fernando Ramos Perez, right, and Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, meet journalists at the Vatican. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

It is the first time an entire bishops conference has offered to step down en masse over a scandal, and lays bare the devastation the case has caused to the Catholic Church in Chile and beyond.

Francis had earlier accused Chile's bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring church lawyers to minimise accusations and of "grave negligence" in protecting children from paedophile priests.

In a devastating 10-page document delivered to the bishops during a summit this week, Francis said the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for "grave defects" in handling abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility for the Catholic Church. </s> All 34 of Chile's Catholic bishops have offered to resign after a crisis meeting with Pope Francis over the cover-up of a sexual abuse scandal.

It comes after several victims said they wanted all bishops sacked and replaced.

Now, the pope has to make a decision on whether to accept the resignations. </s> Pope Francis has accused Chile's bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring church lawyers to minimize accusations and of "grave negligence" in protecting children from pedophile priests.

In a devastating 10-page document delivered to Chilean bishops during a summit this week, Francis said the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for "grave defects" in handling abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility that the Catholic Church has earned.

The document, reported by Chile's T13 television and confirmed as authentic Friday by the Vatican, puts mounting pressure on the bishops as a whole to resign given Francis told them that "no one can exempt himself and place the problem on the shoulders of the others."

The bishops are due to hold a news conference in Rome later Friday. </s> In an unprecedented move, 34 Chilean bishops said on Friday they had offered to resign en masse after attending a crisis meeting this week with Pope Francis about the cover-up of sexual abuse in their country.

It was not immediately clear if the pope would accept all or any of the resignations from the prelates, who hold all the top jobs in Chile's Roman Catholic Church.

'We have put our positions in the hands of the Holy Father and will leave it to him to decide freely for each of us,' the bishops said in a joint statement read out by a spokesman for the churchmen, Bishop Fernando Ramos.

He said the bishops would stay in their roles until the pope had made his decision.

The scandal has devastated the credibility of the Church in the once staunchly Catholic country. It has also hurt the pope's own image because this year he strongly defended a bishop accused in the alleged cover-up before reversing his position.

The Vatican declined to comment on the timing of any decision or on the resignations themselves. A Church official said it was the first time the bishops of an entire country had offered to leave their posts in such a manner.

In their statement, the bishops thanked the pope for his 'brotherly correction'.

'Above all, we want to ask forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, to the pope, to the people of God and our country for the serious errors and omissions committed by us,' the contrite statement said.

This week's meeting followed a Vatican investigation into Bishop Juan Barros, who was appointed by the pope in 2015 despite allegations that he had covered up sexual abuse of minors by his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima.

Now 87 and living in a nursing home in Chile, Karadima has always denied the allegations. Barros has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing.

However, a Vatican source confirmed on Friday a report by Chile's T13 television that the pope had handed the bishops a document accusing them of destroying evidence of sex crimes and of failing to protect children from predator priests.

The document said the church hierarchy was collectively to blame for serious lapses in handling the abuse cases.

Friday's sombre statement came just four months after the pope had visited Chile in a trip that raised questions over his response to abuse scandals that have repeatedly rocked the Church over the past 17 years.

During the visit, Pope Francis had staunchly defended Barros, denouncing accusations against him as 'slander' until proven otherwise.

But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, sent sexual abuse investigator Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to Chile to speak to victims, witnesses and other Church members.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Vatican quoted the pope as saying the four days of meetings this week had been 'frank' and had covered 'painful events regarding abuses – of minors, of power and of conscience'.

The Vatican said the bishops had agreed to short, medium and long-term changes in order to restore justice and Church unity, but did not elaborate. The meeting ended with 'the firm intention to repair the damage done', the pope said. </s> The Latest on a sex abuse and cover-up scandal involving the Catholic Church in Chile (all times local):

All of Chile's bishops have offered to resign over a sex abuse and cover-up scandal, in what is one of the biggest shake-ups ever in the Catholic Church's long-running abuse saga.

At the end of an emergency summit with Pope Francis, 31 active bishops said they had signed a document offering to resign and that they were putting their fate in the hands of the pope.

The mass resignation marks the first time in history that an entire bishops conference had offered to step down en masse over a scandal.

It also lays bare the devastation that the case has caused to the Catholic Church in Chile and beyond.

Pope Francis has accused Chile's bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring church lawyers to minimize accusations and of "grave negligence" in protecting children from pedophile priests.

In a devastating 10-page document delivered to Chilean bishops during a summit this week, Francis said the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for "grave defects" in handling abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility that the Catholic Church has earned.

The document, reported by Chile's T13 television and confirmed as authentic Friday by the Vatican, puts mounting pressure on the bishops as a whole to resign given Francis told them that "no one can exempt himself and place the problem on the shoulders of the others."

The bishops are due to hold a news conference in Rome later Friday. </s> Santiago: In an unprecedented move in the modern history of the Catholic church every bishop in Chile has offered his resignation to Pope Francis, in a case involving sex abuse scandal, media reported.

Thirty one active bishops and three retired bishops on Friday announced their resignation after a three-day emergency summit at the Vatican to discuss Chile's sex abuse scandal.

The simultaneous resignation of all the bishops in a single country is thought to be unprecedented, CNN reported.

The resignations came as the bishops said they placed the issue "in the hands of the Holy Father so that he might freely decide for each one of us".

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said he had no comment on whether Pope Francis would accept the mass resignation.

In response to the resignation of the country's bishops on Friday, Marie Collins, a former member of the Pope's Commission for the Protection of Minors, said that the gesture was not enough.

"No bishop removed — all allowed to resign. Really nothing changes," Collins wrote on Twitter.

Pope Francis called the country's bishops to Rome after he received a 2,300-page report detailing sexual abuses by priests in Chile.

At the centre of the scandal is the Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, whom Francis appointed in 2015 amid an outcry that Barros had known about and covered up abuses.

The Pope stridently defended Bishop Barros, calling accusations against him "calumny".

In an about-face in April, after receiving the Vatican investigator's report, the Pope said he had made "grave errors in judgment", and apologised to Chile's sex abuse victims.

In May, the Pope met privately at the Vatican with three of Barros' main accusers and asked their forgiveness. </s> Pope Francis has defrocked a Chilean priest formerly convicted of sexual abuse, the Vatican said in a statement Friday.

“Pope Francis has dismissed from the clerical state Fernando Karadima Farina, from the archdiocese of Santiago del Chile. The Holy Father has taken this exceptional decision in conscious and for the good of the Church,” the statement said.

The Vatican found Karadima guilty in 2011 of several counts of sexual abuse and sentenced him to a life of penance and prayer.

The Pope’s move, dismissal from the clerical state, is the strongest sanction he can give.

“We were facing a very serious rot case, and it had to be rooted out,” said Greg Burke, director of the Holy See press office, in an audio statement in Spanish. “This is an exceptional measure, no doubt, but the serious crimes of Karadima created an exceptional damage in Chile.”

This month, Francis expelled the Reverend Cristian Precht Bañados of Chile, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Santiago.

That was the first formal resignation the Pope has decreed since every bishop in Chile offered to step down in May over the country’s sex abuse scandal. The Chilean bishops’ offer was thought to be unprecedented in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

The Pope called the bishops to Rome after receiving a 2,300-page report detailing sexual abuses by priests in Chile.

The report alleged that for decades church officials in Chile knew about and covered up cases of sexual abuse, even destroying records.

Last month, police arrested a former Chilean priest over the alleged abuse of seven minors. Prosecutors say 158 people, including bishops, priests and lay people are under investigation. </s> VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has accused Chile's bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring church lawyers to minimize accusations and of "grave negligence" in protecting children from pedophile priests.

In a devastating 10-page document delivered to Chilean bishops during a summit this week, Francis said the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for "grave defects" in handling abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility that the Catholic Church has earned.

The document, reported by Chile's T13 television and confirmed as authentic Friday by the Vatican, puts mounting pressure on the bishops as a whole to resign given Francis told them that "no one can exempt himself and place the problem on the shoulders of the others."

Pope Francis reads his message during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 16, 2018. Pope Francis warned Wednesday that the latest spasm of violence in the Holy Land is only hurting chances for peace, and called for revived efforts at dialogue and justice. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The bishops are due to hold a news conference in Rome later Friday. </s> VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has accused Chile's bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring church lawyers to minimise accusations and of "grave negligence" in protecting children from paedophile priests.

In a devastating 10-page document delivered to Chilean bishops during a summit this week, Francis said the entire Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for "grave defects" in handling abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility that the Catholic Church has earned.

The document, reported by Chile's T13 television and confirmed as authentic today by the Vatican, puts mounting pressure on the bishops as a whole to resign given Francis told them that "no one can exempt himself and place the problem on the shoulders of the others.

" The bishops are due to hold a news conference in Rome later today.

Francis summoned the entire bishops' conference to Rome after admitting that he had made "grave errors in judgment" in the case of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of Chile's most notorious predator priest, the Rev.

Fernando Karadima, of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

But the scandal grew beyond the Barros case after Francis received a 2,300-page report written by two Vatican sex crimes experts sent to Chile to get a handle on the scope of the problem.

Their report hasn't been made public, but Francis cited its core findings in the footnotes to the document he handed over to the bishops Tuesday.

And those findings are damning.

Francis said the investigation showed there were "grave defects" in the way abuse cases were handled, with superficial investigations or no investigation at all of allegations that contained obvious evidence of crimes.

The result, he said, "created a scandal for those who denounced them and all those who know the alleged victims.

" In other cases, there was "grave negligence" in protecting children from pedophiles by bishops and religious superiors a reference to the many cases of sexual abuse that have arisen in recent years within Chilean religious orders, including the Salesians, Franciscans and the Marist Brothers community.

Some of these religious order priests and brothers were expelled from their congregations because of immoral conduct, but had their cases "minimized of the absolute gravity of their criminal acts, attributing to them mere weakness or moral lapses," Francis wrote.

But those same people "were then welcomed into other dioceses, in an obviously imprudent way, and given diocesan or parish jobs that gave them daily contact with minors," he said.

Such behaviour has been the hallmark of the clerical sex abuse crisis worldwide, with bishops and religious superiors shuttling abusers around from parish to parish or dioceses rather than reporting them to police or launching canonical investigations and removing them from ministry.

Francis said he was also "perplexed and ashamed" by the report's evidence that there were "pressures exercised" on church officials tasked with investigating sex crimes "including the destruction of compromising documents on the part of those in charge of ecclesiastic archives.

" He said such behaviour showed "an absolute lack of respect for the canonical process and worse, reprehensible practices that must be avoided in the future.

" He said the problem wasn't limited to a group of people, but can be traced to the training Chilean priests receive in seminary, blaming the "profound fracture" within the church on the seminaries themselves.

The Vatican investigation, he said, contained "grave accusations against some bishops and superiors who sent to these educational institutions priests suspected of active homosexuality."
All 34 Roman Catholic bishops in Chile offer to resign after Pope Francis accused them of destroying evidence of sexual crimes.