VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has defrocked a 88-year-old Chilean priest who sexually abused teenage boys over a period of many years and is at the center of a wider abuse scandal that is still under investigation, the Vatican said on Friday.

Chilean priest Fernando Karadima is seen inside the Supreme Court building in Santiago, Chile, November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Vera

Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked, or “reduced to the lay state” by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called “exceptional” and done “for the good of the Church”.

Karadima, who lives in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital Santiago, was notified on Friday.

He was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 and ordered to live a life of “prayer and penitence”, but was not defrocked at the time, the final years of the reign of former Pope Benedict. That meant he was still a priest, although he could not minister in public.

Karadima, who has always denied wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country.

Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June after an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima’s crimes, some of them former proteges of Karadima, who prepared them for the priesthood as young men in Santiago’s up-scale, conservative El Bosque neighborhood.

Three Chilean men who said they were abused by Karadima accused one, Juan Barros, the former bishop of Osorno, of having witnessed Karadima abuse them.

During a trip to Chile in January, the pope said he had no proof against Barros, believed he was innocent, and that accusations against him were “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.

Scicluna produced a 2,300-page report accusing Chile’s bishops of “grave negligence” in investigating the allegations and said evidence of sex crimes had been destroyed.

In April, Francis, who is also grappling with sexual abuse crises in the United States, Germany and Australia, held four days of meetings in Rome with the three victims - Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo.

“I have a knot in my stomach. I never thought I would see this day,” Cruz said in a tweet thanking the pope. “He (Karadima) is criminal who has ruined so many people’s lives with his abuse. I hope thousands of survivors feel a bit of the relief I feel today.”

Following the meeting with the victims, Francis summoned all of Chile’s 34 bishops to Rome in May and they offered their resignations en masse. Francis has so far accepted seven, and appointed “apostolic administrators” to run their dioceses.</s>The Vatican said Pope Francis has defrocked Father Fernando Karadima, the 88-year-old priest at the center of Chile’s child sex abuse scandal

In a statement on Friday the Vatican said that the pope had made an “exceptional” decision and did so “for the good of the Church”.

Karadima had been ordered to live a life of prayer and penitence after being was found guilty of abusing boys over many years in a Vatican investigation in 2011.

The Vatican didn’t say what new evidence, if any, had prompted the pontiff to re-evaluate Karadima’s original sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of Karadima’s abuse, thanked Francis in a tweet. ” I hope thousands of survivors feel a bit of the relief I feel today.”

Press TV reports: Since June, seven Chilean bishops have stepped down following a probe into a purported cover-up of sexual abuse committed by Karadima.

Karadima, who denies any wrongdoing and is believed to be living in a home for the elderly in the capital Santiago, escaped civilian justice due to the statute of limitations in the South American country.

The decree to defrock Karadima was signed on Thursday, the Vatican said, adding the pontiff was notified of being “reduced to the lay state” on Friday.

The Catholic Church worldwide is reeling from crises involving the sexual abuse of minors, deeply damaging confidence in the Holy See.

The scandals have been the most serious in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland.

Cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests have led to many investigations, trials and convictions.

There have been numerous allegations of attempts by Church authorities to cover up abuse.

Pope Francis has formerly expressed “shame and sorrow” over the matter.

Addressing an event in Ireland, attended by some victims of such sexual abuses, the pontiff admitted that the Church had failed to address the “crimes.”</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—Pope Francis has defrocked a prominent Chilean priest at the center of a sexual-abuse scandal that has rocked the traditionally Catholic South American nation.

The Vatican said the pope had dismissed Fernando Karadima from the priesthood for the “good of the church” and notified the former priest on Friday.</s>Pope Francis has defrocked notorious Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, making what the Vatican calls an "exceptional" decision based on his own conscience and concern for the good of the Catholic Church. Karadima has been the face of the church's sexual abuse scandal in Chile.

The move is effective immediately. It was announced in a brief communique from the Vatican's press office, stating that Francis had signed the decree removing Karadima from the priesthood on Thursday, and that Karadima was informed of the pope's decision on Friday.

Karadima, 88, had already been forced to retire from ministerial duties, after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty in 2011 of sexually abusing dozens of minors, in a scandal that erupted in 2010.

"Karadima escaped civilian justice but was sentenced by the church to a lifetime of penance and prayer," NPR's Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast unit. "That sanction has long been criticized by victims as too lenient. For a priest, being defrocked is the stiffest penalty short of excommunication from the catholic church."

In June, the pope accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops over the church's handling of the sexual abuse cases — including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who was a protégé of Karadima.

Barros has been accused of covering up Karadima's abuse in cases that date back to the 1980s. Both of them have denied the allegations against them.

Francis has faced intense criticism over his handling of the abuse scandal in Chile, particularly after he appointed Barros as a bishop in 2015 — a move that enraged thousands of Catholics.

Abuse victims in Chile were also angered in January when the pope dismissed allegations against Barros as "calumny," saying he had never seen proof against the bishop. The outrage that followed seemed to persuade Francis to send a new investigative team to Chile — and soon afterward, he admitted he had made mistakes and had been given incomplete information.

The process of defrocking a priest is so unique that the Vatican has used a number of phrases to describe it. An initial bulletin said that Francis had in effect "resigned" Karadima from the clerical ranks. The Vatican's news service later put out a report saying the pope had "laicized" the priest – implying he has now been returned to the status of a layperson.</s>Pope Francis has defrocked Father Fernando Karadima, the 88-year-old priest at the centre of the sexual abuse scandal in Chile, the Vatican has announced.

Karadima was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years.

He was ordered to live a life of prayer and penitence, but he was not defrocked.

Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June following an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima's actions.</s>VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis has defrocked a prominent Chilean priest at the center of a sexual-abuse scandal that has rocked the traditionally Catholic South American nation.

In a statement Friday, the Vatican said the pope had made the “exceptional decision” to dismiss Fernando Karadima from the priesthood for the “good of the church.” It said the former priest had been notified on Friday of the decision, which prohibits him from celebrating Mass or administering the sacraments.</s>VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his "supreme" authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to live a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran.

The "penance and prayer" sanction has been the Vatican's punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement.

The Vatican didn't say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima's sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. It said Francis made the "exceptional decision" for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the pope's "supreme, full, immediate and universal power" to serve the church.

The statement said the decree, signed Thursday, takes effect immediately and that Karadima was informed of it Friday.

The decision appeared aimed at showing a get-tough approach to sex abuse after a series of missteps by Francis and accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis had rehabilitated a now-disgraced former American cardinal early on in his papacy.

Earlier this month, some of the highest ranking Catholic leaders from the U.S. met with Pope Francis to discuss the priest abuse scandal. At the time, U.S. bishops said Pope Francis "listened deeply from the heart" but they offered few details and no "next steps" in how the church planned to deal with abuse.

While the move to defrock Karadima will be welcomed by Chilean victims as overdue, the decision could spark a religious debate for those who see it as a second punishment for the same crime. Francis' conservative critics might also bristle at another display of raw papal power from the Argentine Jesuit.

Francis sparked a crisis in his papacy earlier this year when he strongly defended one of Karadima's proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, against accusations that he had witnessed Karadima's abuse and ignored it.

Francis had claimed that the accusations against Barros were "calumny" and politically motivated, and he defended his 2015 decision to appoint Barros bishop of a small Chilean diocese over the objections of the faithful and many in the Chilean hierarchy.

After realizing that something was amiss, Francis ordered a Vatican investigation that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Chilean church leadership. Francis apologized to the victims and set about making amends, including getting every active bishop in Chile to offer to resign.

To date, he has accepted seven of the more than 30 resignations offered, including that of Barros. It was the second time in a month that Francis has laicized a Chilean priest, after five years in which the Vatican appeared to favor less drastic sentences.

On Sept. 15, the archdiocese of Santiago announced that Francis had defrocked the Rev. Christian Precht, citing the Latin terminology — "ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae" — on his own authority and for the good of the church.

The decision by Francis to revisit Karadima's sentence and impose the stiffest penalty available to him, with the exception of excommunication, is significant as he battles to gain credibility on the abuse issue.

Francis has said he has "zero tolerance" for abuse, but his record has been shoddy and the Barros fiasco made clear that, at least until he changed course this spring, he was more willing to believe his clerical friends and advisers than victims.

Pollsters have cited the Karadima scandal, which first erupted in 2009, as the tipping point in the Chilean church's progressive loss of credibility among ordinary Chileans.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Karadima's abuse who has been a key driver in pushing for justice for victims and an overhaul of the Chilean hierarchy, thanked Francis for taking action against Karadima.

"I never thought I'd see this day," Cruz tweeted. "I hope many survivors feel a bit of relief today."</s>Pope Francis has defrocked notorious Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, making what the Vatican calls an "exceptional" decision based on his own conscience and concern for the good of the Catholic Church. Karadima has been the face of the church's sexual abuse scandal in Chile.

The move is effective immediately. It was announced in a brief communique from the Vatican's press office, stating that Francis had signed the decree removing Karadima from the priesthood on Thursday, and that Karadima was informed of the pope's decision on Friday.

Karadima, 88, had already been forced to retire from ministerial duties, after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty in 2011 of sexually abusing dozens of minors, in a scandal that erupted in 2010.

In June, the pope accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops over the church's handling of the sexual abuse cases — including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who was a protégé of Karadima.

Barros has been accused of covering up Karadima's abuse in cases that date back to the 1980s. Both of them have denied the allegations against them.

Francis has faced intense criticism over his handling of the abuse scandal in Chile, particularly after he appointed Barros as a bishop in 2015 — a move that enraged thousands of Catholics.

Abuse victims in Chile were also angered in January when the pope dismissed allegations against Barros as "calumny," saying he had never seen proof against the bishop. The outrage that followed seemed to persuade Francis to send a new investigative team to Chile — and soon afterward, he admitted he had made mistakes and had been given incomplete information.</s>Pope Francis has defrocked Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, making what the Vatican calls an "exceptional" decision based on his own conscience and concern for the good of the Catholic Church. Karadima has been the face of the Church's abuse scandal in Chile.

The move is effective immediately. It was announced in a brief communique from the Vatican's press office, stating that Francis had signed the decree removing Karadima from the priesthood on Thursday, and that Karadima was informed of the pope's decision on Friday.

Karadima, 88, had already been forced to retire from ministerial duties, after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty in 2011 of sexually abusing dozens of minors, in a scandal that erupted in 2010.

In June, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of three bishops over the church's handling of the sexual abuse cases — including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who has been accused of covering up Karadima's actions.

Barros was a protégé of Karadima, who was accused of abuse in cases that date back to the 1980s.
The Roman Catholic Church defrocks Father Fernando Karadima, a priest at the center of a sex abuse scandal in Chile.