By The Editorial Board, Editorial, Jan. 20, 2018<\/p>\n
Pope Francis arrived in Chile with the right message: He was \u201cpained and ashamed,\u201d he said on Tuesday<\/a>, about the irreparable damage abusive priests have inflicted on minors. Yet he refused to meet with victims of the country\u2019s most nefarious sexual abuser, and when pressed about his support of a bishop linked to that priest, he dismissed the accusations as slander<\/a>.<\/p>\n For all his professions of horror at the revelations about predatory priests whose activities were covered up by the hierarchy \u2014 and for all his other admirably enlightened and pastoral actions \u2014 it seems the pope has yet to fully appreciate that the abuse of minors is not simply a matter of a few deviant priests protected by overzealous prelates but of his church\u2019s acceptance of a horrible violation of a most sacred trust: that of a devout and questioning youth and a spiritual guide.<\/p>\n Acknowledging and regretting the damage is not enough. If the Catholic Church is ever to lift the deep stain of child sex abuse, the pope must take every opportunity to reject not only clear violations but also the slightest appearance of tolerance for such behavior.<\/p>\n He missed that opportunity by attending the funeral last month<\/a> for Cardinal Bernard Law, the powerful former archbishop of Boston who resigned after revelations that he protected abusive priests for years and became, in effect, the image of a hierarchy that concealed and thereby enabled sexual abuse. He missed it in the failure of the Vatican so far to appoint a new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors after the commissioners\u2019 terms expired in December.<\/p>\n And Pope Francis missed it again in Chile. One of Latin America\u2019s most staunchly Catholic countries, Chile had been shaken by revelations about the sexual crimes of Fernando Karadima, once one of Chile\u2019s most respected and influential priests. It took years for the church to act on complaints about him, but a Vatican investigation in 2011 finally found Father Karadima guilty of sexual abuse and restricted him to a life of isolated penitence. A Chilean judge later determined that the allegations against the priest were truthful, but the statute of limitations<\/a>had expired.<\/p>\n Among those accused of turning a blind eye to Father Karadima\u2019s behavior was a priest and longtime member of Father Karadima\u2019s entourage, Juan Barros Madrid. Yet Pope Francis made him a bishop in 2015 and, despite protests from victims of Father Karadima and from many priests and laypeople in the diocese, Bishop Barros participated in the pope\u2019s official ceremonies in Chile. When reporters raised the subject on Thursday, Pope Francis answered sharply that there was \u201cnot one single piece of evidence\u201d against the bishop. \u201cIt is all slander,\u201d he declared. \u201cIs that clear?\u201d<\/p>\n No, it is not clear.<\/p>\n Victims of sexual abuse may have only their tortured memories as evidence, and these have been dismissed for far too long as slander by a hierarchy intent on protecting the church\u2019s reputation. Pope Francis has repeatedly pledged action to end the abuse and the cover-up, and the church has come a long way. But too often he and his church raise doubts that they\u2019re fully committed.<\/p>\n