Pope 'making history' with abuse summit

The Vatican investigator sent to take testimony from Chilean sex abuse victims has said the Holy See is "making history" with Pope Francis's emergency summit of the Chilean hierarchy.

The Rev Jordi Bertomeu, a Spaniard in the Vatican office that handles abuse cases, told reporters that he expects "important" measures to be taken to try to repair the Chilean church.

Francis summoned the entire Chilean bishops' conference to Rome for four days of meetings and prayer after admitting that he had made "grave errors in judgment" in the case of a Chilean bishop accused of witnessing and ignoring abuse.

Francis had sent Father Bertomeu and the Vatican's top expert to investigate, and they came back with a much broader view of the scale of abuse and cover-up in the church.