✣ Pope makes difficult trip to Chile and Peru
What happened? Pope Francis has rebuked Chilean abuse survivors who accused Bishop Juan Barros of covering up sexual abuse. On his trip to Chile, the Pope had said: “There is not one piece of evidence against him. It is calumny. Is that clear?” On the flight home, Francis said that he should have said “proof”, not evidence, and that the latter word was “not the best word to use to approach a wounded heart”. He admitted that his statement had been “a slap in the face” for victims. What abuse survivors are saying Before the Pope expressed regret, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the main Vatican adviser on child protection, said it was “understandable” that the Pope’s statements “were a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator”. Several abuse survivors expressed dismay at his remarks. Anne Barrett Doyle, who runs the website BishopAccountability.org, told the Guardian that Francis had “turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis. Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?” One of Bishop Barros’s accusers. Juan Carlos Cruz, tweeted: “The Pontiff talks about atonement to the victims. Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty.” What the vaticanisti are saying Philip Pullella of Reuters noted that the Barros case had “riveted Chile for years”. Bishops Barros’s mentor, Fr Fernando Karadima, was “found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. Karadima denies the allegations, and Barros said he was unaware of any wrongdoing.” Pullella observed that “Even Chile’s famously conservative print media criticised the Pope’s comments.” At Catholic News Agency, Hannah Brockaus said that “Francis has long defended Barris, who claims to be innocent”. Four abuse survivors have accused him of “colluding to cover up [abuse]”. Bishop Barros offered his resignation in 2015. Pope Francis told reporters on the flight that he rejected the resignation, because to do so would be “to admit culpability in advance”.
