Bishop Juan Barros Pope Francis apologised to victims of clergy sex abuse, saying he unknowingly wounded them by the way he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse by his mentor.
Speaking with journalists on his flight to Rome from Lima, Peru, the Pope said he only realised later that his words erroneously implied that victims’ accusations are credible only with concrete proof.
“To hear that the Pope says to their face, ‘Bring me a letter with proof’, is a slap in the face,” the Pope said.
Pope Francis was referring to a response he gave in Iquique, Chile, when local reporters asked about his support for Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, given accusations that the bishop may have been aware of abuse perpetrated by his former mentor, Father Fernando Karadima.
Proof
The priest was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance by the Vatican after he was found guilty of sexually abusing boys.
“The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I will speak. There is not one piece of evidence against him. It is calumny. Is that clear?” the Pope had told the reporters in Iquique.
His response provoked further outrage, especially from Fr Karadima’s victims who said the Pope’s response made his earlier apologies for the Church’s failure to protect sex abuse victims seem hollow.
Asked about the incident during the flight back to Rome, Pope Francis said he meant to use the word ‘evidence’, not ‘proof’.
The way he phrased his response, he said, caused confusion and was “not the best word to use to approach a wounded heart”.
“Of course, I know that there are many abused people who cannot bring proof (or) they don’t have it,” he said. “Or at times they have it but they are ashamed and cover it up and suffer in silence. The tragedy of the abused is tremendous.”
However, the Pope told reporters on the papal flight that he still stood firmly behind his defence of Bishop Barros, because he was “personally convinced” of the bishop’s innocence after the case was investigated twice with no evidence emerging.
Pope Francis said that while “covering up abuse is an abuse in itself”, if he punished Bishop Barros without moral certainty, “I would be committing the crime of a bad judge”.
Pope Francis told reporters he appreciated the statement made by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, acknowledging the pain survivors of abuse felt because of the Pope’s statement about Bishop Barros.
During the in-flight news conference, Pope Francis answered eight questions over the course of an hour.