CHILE
Telesur
The appointment of Juan Barros as bishop of Osorno in 2015 sparked controversy as the cleric is accused of protecting a notorious child-abusing priest.
Outraged Chilean Catholics asked Pope Francis to fire a controversial bishop accused of shielding a pedophile priest in a pair of letters delivered on Sunday by one of the victims of the Chilean priest’s sexual abuse.
The letters addressed to Pope Francis were delivered by Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean sexually abused by a Catholic priest as a teenager, and Peter Saunders, a British member of an advisory committee to the pope on sexual abuse in the church. The two left the letters with a cardinal to be delivered to the Pope.
Catholics in Chile wrote to the Holy See to demand that Juan Barros, controversially appointed bishop of Osorno, be removed from his post. Hundreds outraged by the appointment protested in southern Chile last year to try to block Barros from being ordained, but Pope Francis dismissed the outcry, claiming the accusations against Barros had been invented by a bunch of “leftists.”
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