POPE APOLOGIZES TO VICTIMS, BUT DEFENDS BISHOP

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 press conference late Sunday as he returned home from Chile and Peru, where the clergy abuse scandal and his comments about it plunged the Chilean church into renewed crisis and revived questions about whether Francis “gets it” about abuse.

Francis insisted that to date no one had provided him with evidence that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in keeping quiet about Rev. Fernando Karadima, the Chilean priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for molesting minors.

“I can’t condemn him because I don’t have evidence,” Francis said. “But I’m also convinced that he’s innocent.”