Pope Francis absolves two Chilean bishops of duties over child abuse claims

Vatican City: Pope Francis has dismissed two Chilean bishops from their duties as priests amid allegations that they are linked to the sexual abuse of minors, the Vatican said in a statement.

The Bishops are Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus, archbishop emeritus of La Serena, and Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, archbishop emeritus of Iquique, the statement further said.

Pope Francis met Chile's President Sebastian Pinera in the Vatican, where the two spoke particularly about 'the painful scourge of abuse of minors', the BBC reported.

The decision could not be challenged, the statement said.

More than hundred Catholic clergy are being quizzed in Chile over sex crimes.

All 34 of Chile's bishops offered their resignations to the Pope in May over the scandal. The pontiff accepted three resignations in June.

In September Pope Francis defrocked former priest Fernando Karadima, 88, for having sexually abused minors.

The move to defrock the two Chilean archbishops came a day after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Washington DC archbishop Donald Wuerl, who has been criticised for his handling of sexual abuse cases.

A Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse released in August said he had allowed accused priests to be reassigned or reinstated.

A leaked Church report in September revealed more than 3,600 children in Germany were assaulted by Catholic priests between 1946 and 2014.

Most of the victims were boys, and more than half were aged 13 or younger.

And in July, Australian Catholic archbishop Philip Wilson was sentenced to 12 months in detention for concealing historic child sexual abuse, the most senior Catholic globally to be convicted of the crime. (UNI)