PERU TOUR Pope Francis apologises for ‘slap in the face’ to sexual abuse victims
Lima: Pope Francis has apologised for insisting that victims of paedophile priests show “proof ” to be believed, saying he realised it was a “slap in the face” to victims that he never intended. But he doubled down on defending a Chilean bishop accused by victims of covering up for the country’s most notorious paedophile priest, and he repeated that anyone who makes such accusations without providing evidence is guilty of slander.
He issued the partial mea culpa as he returned home from Chile and Peru, where the clergy abuse scandal and his own comments about it plunged the Chilean church into renewed crisis and revived questions about whether Pope Francis “gets it” about abuse.
The Pope insisted that to date no one had provided him with evidence that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in keeping quiet about the perversions of the Reverend Fernando Karadima, the charismatic Chilean priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for molesting and fondling minors in his Santiago parish. Flying home from the most contested trip of his papacy, Pope Francis said Barros would remain bishop of Osorno, Chile as long as there is no evidence implicating him in the cover-up.
The victims have said for years that Barros, one of Karadima’s proteges, witnessed the abuse and did nothing to stop it. Barros denies the accusations.
Pope Francis acknowledged that he misspoke when he said he needed to see “proof ” to believe the accusations, saying it was a legal term that he didn’t intend. He corrected himself and used the term “evidence”, instead, which he said could include testimony.