By Jason Horowitz, Jan. 31. 2018<\/p>\n
ROME \u2014 When it comes to sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, supporters of Pope Francis are hoping that if indeed he was blind<\/a>, now he sees.<\/p>\n Francis on Tuesday dispatched the Vatican\u2019s leading sex crimes investigator to Chile<\/a>, days after the pope\u2019s vigorous, repeated and potentially disastrous defense of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who is accused of protecting the country\u2019s most notorious pedophile priest.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of some information received recently regarding the case,\u201d the Vatican said in a statement on Tuesday, the church will send to Chile the Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who has been called the Vatican\u2019s Eliot Ness in fighting clerical sex abuse. There, the statement continued, he will \u201chear those who have expressed the desire to provide elements in their possession.\u201d<\/p>\n By elements in their possession, the Vatican apparently means the testimony and painful stories of victims that the pope had previously dismissed as slanderous accusations.<\/p>\n The pope\u2019s belief of a powerful bishop over victims outraged advocates for the survivors of sexual abuse both outside and inside the church. The outcry over the pope\u2019s blind spot <\/a>to clerical sexual abuse, and his tin ear to the anguish of its victims, threatened to indelibly stain the pontificate of a usually politically astute pope.<\/p>\n The pope\u2019s supporters on Tuesday quickly embraced the decision as an important course correction.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a positive development in so far that it makes clear that the Holy See is interested to learn from and hear the testimonies of witnesses,\u201d said the Rev. Hans Zollner<\/a>, who served as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It was clear Francis had \u201clistened to the questions that some journalists have put to him,\u201d Father Zollner added. \u201cHe has learned from the reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n But victims in Chile said that while the news was welcome, they hoped it was not a public relations gambit.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody has said anything to us,\u201d said Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean who says he was sexually abused by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. He has said that Bishop Barros witnessed the abuse and did nothing about it.<\/p>\n He said that he would be willing to testify, as victims have been doing to church law tribunals since 2005, and added, \u201cWe are encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n Francis\u2019 trip to Chile in mid-January was overshadowed by his brusque remarks to a Chilean reporter that the claims against Bishop Barros amounted to \u201cslander.\u201d The pope said he would weigh in on the matter if there were \u201cproof\u201d against the bishop.<\/p>\n Cardinal Sean O\u2019Malley, the archbishop of Boston and the leader of the pope\u2019s commission on the protection of minors, called the pope\u2019s remarks \u201ca source of great pain for survivors\u201d that relegated them \u201cto discredited exile.\u201d<\/p>\n In a clumsy attempt at damage control, the pope made a contradictory statement on the flight back to Rome. He apologized for demanding proof from alleged victims, saying that the word was insensitive, but then reiterated that there was no \u201cevidence\u201d against the bishop, who he again said was the victim of slander.<\/p>\n Some victims of Father Karadima, a powerful priest convicted by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors, have accused Bishop Barros of standing by as the priest kissed and abused them in the El Bosque Catholic parish.<\/p>\n On the plane, Francis said he had twice refused to accept the resignation of Bishop Barros, and in January 2015 he moved the bishop from leading Chile\u2019s military ordinariate to the diocese of Osorno. The installation fractured the faithful and clergy of the city, with many opposing a bishop they considered complicit in sexual abuse.<\/p>\n The pope\u2019s response mystified observers and vexed his supporters. Possible explanations tumbled out. Was he getting bad advice from his cardinal advisers? Was he protecting a friend? Was he a member of a Vatican faction<\/a>that believes in \u201czero tolerance\u201d or one that considers the abuse issue finished business? Was the pope, someone who faced accusations of supporting a violent regime as a cardinal in Argentina, loath to give into public pressure?<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s statement suggested that public pressure had forced the pope to act and that far from infallible, Francis had perhaps spoken in Chile without knowing what he was talking about.<\/p>\n By contrast, Bishop Scicluna has in the last decade emerged as the Vatican prelate who most gets it when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n Bishop Scicluna, who declined to comment for this article, acted as a prosecutor during his time at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI. He took on the powerful Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado of Mexico, the founder of the influential Legionaries of Christ, who was considered untouchable because of his close ties to and protection under Pope John Paul II.<\/p>\n For years, Vatican prelates dismissed the accusations of Father Degollado\u2019s victims as slander, but Bishop Scicluna listened to them and, after John Paul\u2019s death, convinced the Vatican that Father Degollado had abused seminarians in his own order.<\/p>\n Benedict sentenced Father Degollado to a life of penance and prayer in 2006. Father Degollado died in 2008, and was later shown to have been a serial molester who fathered children by two women.<\/p>\n Archbishop Scicluna subsequently explained that Benedict, previously John Paul\u2019s chief doctrinal watchdog, had undergone a conversion on the issue as he sat at his desk reading horrific dossier after horrific dossier.<\/p>\n Advocates for Francis hope that Archbishop Scicluna will now figure in opening up the eyes of another pontiff.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is good that he has now looked anew and taken this step,\u201d Marie Collins<\/a>, an abuse survivor who last year resigned in frustration from the pope\u2019s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, wrote on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite Francis\u2019 promises to rid the church of abuse, many Vatican watchers consider him far less effective than Benedict, who removed many priests. Francis has mostly disappointed those who hoped he would bring accountability to the church hierarchy.<\/p>\n