Pope Francis had a troubled course on dealing with clergy sexual abuse

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Few could have predicted that a comment Pope Francis made during a 2018 visit to Chile would blow up into the biggest crisis of his papacy, and one that eventually set the Catholic Church on a new path of accountability for clergy sexual abuse.

Francis was asked by a TV reporter about a Chilean bishop who had been accused by victims of having covered up the crimes of Chile’s most notorious pedophile. Francis had been defending the bishop for years and shot back that there was “not one shred of proof against him. It’s all slander. Is that clear?”

His irate response struck a nerve in Chile, which was just beginning to come to terms with a horrific legacy of clergy abuse, and it prompted Francis’ top child protection adviser to sternly rebuke the pope for his harmful words.

But then something remarkable happened: Rather than dig in, Francis commissioned an investigation, realized he was wrong, apologized to the victims he discredited, and got the entire Chilean hierarchy to offer to resign. It was one o...
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