VATICAN CITY
The Tablet

February 5, 2018

By Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sexual abuse is once again coming under scrutiny following news that he was handed a letter from a Chilean abuse victim which detailed the survivor’s ordeal and that a future bishop witnessed it.

The news of a letter, reported by the Associated Press, contradicts the Pope’s insistence that victims of Fr Fernando Karadima had not come forward to complain about a cover-up by Bishop Juan Barros, who Francis appointed to lead the Diocese of Osorno in 2015.

“You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward,” Francis told journalists on the plane returning to Rome at the end of his six-day Latin America trip at the end of last month. He also said on the plane: “No one has come forward. They…