AP News - Chile bishop ordained amid protest more than alleged sex cover-up

Chronicle Bulletin
March 21, 2015

http://www.chroniclebulletin.com/world/ap-news-chile-bishop-ordained-amid-protest-more-than-alleged-sex-cover-up-h5599.html

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A bishop was ordained in southern Chile on Saturday amid riot police and shouting protesters who accuse him of covering up crimes of a mentor the Vatican has sanctioned for abusing young boys.

Hundreds of churchgoers dressed in the black of mourning denounced the 58-year-old Rev. Juan Barros as he took more than as bishop of the southern city of Osorno. Quite a few named for him to instantly resign.

Police had to escort Barros out of the church immediately after his ordination, which was attended by only 15 of the country's 35 bishops and about 20 of the 35 priests in the diocese some 580 miles (930 kilometers) south of Santiago.

Though Barros himself is not accused of molestation, at least 3 victims of sex abuse say he was present when they have been molested by the Rev. Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 90s.

The controversy has been closely watched by victims, advocacy groups and lawmakers as a test of Pope Francis' promises to crack down on clerical sex abuse.

"I hold the Pope accountable," stated Juan Carlos Cruz, a 51-year-old journalist who is 1 of the accusers.

"As victims, we had come to be made use of to the slaps in the face by the Chilean hierarchy, but we under no circumstances expected a slap in the face from the Pope," he told The Linked Press.

Barros had extended declined to comment publicly on allegations against him. Nevertheless he sent a letter to priests in the diocese on Monday saying he did not know about Karadima's abuses when they occurred.

"I by no means had know-how of, or could have imagined, the serious abuses that this priest committed against the victims," mentioned the letter.

The Pope confirmed his choice to appoint Barros following he not too long ago met with him.

More than 1,300 church members in Osorno, along with some 30 priests from the diocese and 51 of Chile's 120 congress members sent letters to Francis in February urging him to rescind the appointment.

A Vatican investigation discovered Karadima, a single of Chile's most prominent priests, guilty of sex abuse in 2011 and sentenced the now 84-year-old priest to a cloistered life of "penitence and prayer."

Criminal charges against him have been thrown out due to the fact the statute of limitations had expired.

Cruz said that he and a different teen boy would lie down on Karadima's bed, 1 resting his head at the man's shoulder, a different sitting near his feet. The priest would kiss the boys and grope them, he mentioned, whilst Barros watched.