Pope Francis has accused victims of Chile's most notorious paedophile of slander - an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country.

Thousands of people lined streets in Chile's capital as Pope Francis visited the Latin American country for the first time.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a US bishop who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected priestly child abuser in the first known case of a pope sanctioning bishops for covering up for paedophiles.