AP Exclusive: Letter about abuse coverup belies pope denial
VATICAN CITY — The letter was graphic not just in describing how the priest kissed and fondled the boy, but also in how other priests who saw the abuse tried to hush it up. Pope Francis said recently that none of the victims had come forward to denounce the coverup, so the news that the letter was hand-delivered to Francis in 2015 is adding fuel to one of the biggest scandals of his five-year papacy.
The Associated Press obtained the eight-page letter, written in Francis’ native Spanish, and was told by both the victim who wrote it and by members of the pope’s sex-abuse commission that Francis’ top adviser assured them he gave it to the pope.
The pope’s trip to Chile last month was marred by protests over his vigorous defence of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring the abuse of young parishioners by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.
On the plane home, confronted by an AP reporter, the pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”