Pope apologizes for remarks

Pope Francis apologized for remarks he made last week defending a bishop in Chile accused of covering up sexual abuse, but he did not back down from his support of the bishop who has caused a firestorm. The pope’s remarks had caused widespread backlash among abuse survivors and even prompted criticism from Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and the pope’s top adviser on clerical sex abuse.

Francis said that he realized his words hurt many, but he repeated his view that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros — the bishop at the center of the controversy — is innocent, according to reporters on the papal plane flying back to Rome. “The drama of those abused is terrible,” the pope said on Sunday.

Last week, the pope said victims who had accused Barros were committing slander, which drew criticism from O’Malley in Boston.

“It is understandable that Pope Francis’ statements ... were a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator,” O’Malley said in the statement. “Words that convey the message ‘if you cannot prove your claims then you will not be believed’ abandon those who have suffered reprehensible criminal violations of their human dignity and relegate survivors to discredited exile.”

Sex abuse survivors were outraged in December after the Catholic Church honored disgraced former Boston Archbishop Bernard Law with a full cardinal’s funeral, despite his role in a major cover-up. Francis has apologized to sex abuse survivors several times, including during his trip last week, but many Catholics think he has not done enough on the issue.