Pope apologizes to abuse victims but backs bishop
THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis apologized for insisting that victims of pedophile priests show “proof ” to be believed, saying he realized 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 pedophile priest, and he repeated that anyone who makes such accusations without providing evidence is guilty of slander.
Francis issued the partial mea culpa in an airborne news conference 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 Francis appreciates the severity of sex abuse by priests.
Francis 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 Rev. Fernando Karadima, the charismatic Chilean priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for molesting and fondling minors in his Santiago parish.
Francis said Barros would remain bishop of Osorno, Chile, as long as there’s no evidence implicating him in the coverup.
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 accusa tions.
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.
“Here I have to apologize because the word ‘proof ’ hurt them. It hurt a lot of abused people,” he said. “It’s a slap in the face.”