This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Pope Francis has apologised for insisting that victims of paedophile priests show “proof” to be believed. He said he realised it was a “slap in the face” to victims.

Pope Francis accuses Chilean church sexual abuse victims of slander Read more

But he doubled down on his defence of a Chilean bishop accused by victims of covering up for the country’s most notorious paedophile priest. He repeated that anyone who makes such accusations without providing evidence is guilty of slander.

Francis issued the partial mea culpa in an airborne press conference as he returned home from Chile and Peru, where the abuse scandal and his own comments about it plunged the Chilean church into renewed crisis and revived questions about whether Francis is taking the issue seriously.

Flying home from the most contested trip of his papacy, Francis insisted that to date no one had provided him with evidence that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in keeping quiet about the perversions of the Rev Fernando Karadima, the charismatic Chilean priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for molesting minors.

Francis named Barros as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno in Chile, and speaking on Sunday, he said Barros would remain in the position as long as there’s no evidence implicating him in the coverup.

“I can’t condemn him because I don’t have evidence,” Francis said. “But I’m also convinced that he’s innocent.”

Someone who accuses insistently without evidence, this is calumny Pope Francis

Karadima was removed from ministry and sentenced by the Vatican in 2011 to a lifetime of penance and prayer. A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes was not lacking.

The victims have said for years that Barros witnessed the abuse and did nothing to stop it. Barros denies the accusations.

“The best thing is for those who believe this to bring the evidence forward,” Francis said. “In this moment I don’t think it’s this way, because I don’t have it, but I have an open heart to receive them.”

Francis, though, repeated again that anyone who makes an accusation without evidence is guilty of slander.

“Someone who accuses insistently without evidence, this is calumny,” he said.

He acknowledged that he misspoke when he said he needed to see “proof” to believe the accusations, saying it was a legal term that he didn’t intend.

“Here I have to apologize because the word ‘proof’ hurt them. It hurt a lot of abused people,” he said. “I know how much they suffer. And to hear that the pope told them to their face that they need to bring a letter with proof? It’s a slap in the face.”