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Vatican City • Chile’s Catholic bishops said Monday they were open to whatever Pope Francis proposes to overhaul the Chilean church, including the removal of bishops, reforms of seminaries and paying financial reparation to victims of a clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Representatives of the Chilean bishops conference told reporters they were heading into three days of meetings with Francis humbled, pained and shamed for their own errors in handling abuse cases. They said they wanted to listen to Francis and would follow his lead in asking forgiveness of the victims they had discredited.

A conference spokesman, Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, said “it’s possible” some bishops would offer to resign, but that it was up to the pope. “We’ll respect what he says. If he asks, we’ll do it.”

Francis summoned the bishops to Rome for an emergency summit after receiving a 2,300-page report on the abuse cover-up scandal, which he had helped fuel. During a visit to Chile in January, Francis strongly defended a bishop, Juan Barros, who was accused by victims of Chile’s most notorious predator priest of having witnessed and ignored their abuse.

Francis acknowledged he made “grave errors of judgment” in the case and blamed a “lack of truthful and balanced information” for his missteps.

Chile’s bishops have insisted they provided Francis with correct information, and they declined Monday to go into detail about who knew what and when.

Gonzalez, the conference spokesman, was among Barros’ strong defenders. He said as recently as January that the accusations against Barros were politically motivated and devoid of proof.

On Monday, Gonzalez said he stood by Barros because his “brother felt hurt, alone, a bit abandoned,” and that any good Catholic would have done the same.

Victims of the Rev. Fernando Karadima have described the pain and anguish they felt over the support afforded Barros, whom they placed at the scene of their abuse.

Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops are widely expected to resign. But the scandal has tainted other bishops, including one of Francis’ top advisers, the retired archbishop of Santiago.

Gonzalez and the secretary general of the conference, Bishop Fernando Ramos, said it was clear that changes were necessary in the Chilean church. They said the seminary training Chilean priests receive needs to include courses on child protection.