Pope Francis named him Bishop of Osorno on 10 January 2015. Cardinal
Ricardo Ezzati,
Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, tried to have Francis withdraw the appointment. Barros was criticized for his connection to Fr Fernando Karadima, who had been accused by multiple people of sexual misconduct. Some alleged victims claimed that Barros was present during Karadima's sexual acts, with one even saying that he participated in them. Local protests and candlelight vigils and a petition to the papal nuncio on the part of 30 of the 41 priests of the diocese and deacons of the diocese were unsuccessful in blocking Barros' appointment, as was a letter signed by 51 members of the
National Congress. Protestors stormed the cathedral to disrupt Barros' installation there in March. According to Francis, Barros later offered to resign on two occasions. Parishioners continued to protest Barros' appointment by withholding donations or leaving a church where he appeared. Other lay groups found themselves energized to fight what one called their "revictimization" and to campaign for their voices to be heard in the selection of their bishop. On 19 January, Francis defended Barros, saying: "The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk. But there is not one single piece of evidence. It is all slander. Is that clear?" Some Chilean bishops supported the pope and agreed the Church should focus on victims of abuse, while
Benito Baranda, a prominent social activist who coordinated protests of the pope's visit to Chile, said Barros should be removed and that the pope's language "reignites the feeling of not being believed, or that they are exaggerating or being deceitful." The next day, while giving Francis credit for supporting many efforts to reduce and punish sexual abuse on the part of clergy, Cardinal
Seán Patrick O'Malley criticized the pope's comments as "a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator". On 22 January 2018 Pope Francis spoke at length about the charges against Barros. He said that "the Barros case was examined and reexamined, but there is no evidence. That is what I wanted to say. I don't have the evidence needed to convict." Several members of the
Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors later reported that they had presented O'Malley with an 8-page letter from Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Barros' accusers, and that O'Malley later assured them he had given it to Francis. This contradicted Francis's earlier claims that he had not heard statements from any victims. "You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven't seen any, because they haven't come forward," he had previously said. On 30 January, in response to continued public outcry, the Vatican announced that Francis was assigning
Charles J. Scicluna, Archbishop of
Malta to investigate the Barros case anew. Scicluna had been the Vatican's leading investigator in a number of high-profile sex abuse cases, including that of
Marcial Maciel. Scicluna did not restrict his investigation to the Barros case. In February, assisted by
Jordi Bertomeu from the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he conducted interviews with victims of sexual abuse and other witnesses, received documents and the results of previous government investigations, and met with a delegation from Osorno who opposed Barros continuing as their bishop. On 8 April, Francis sent a letter inviting the bishops of Chile to meet with him in Rome to consider Scicluna's report and help him decide how to reform the Church in Chile. He admitted he had "made serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation" and wrote: "I now beg the forgiveness of all those whom I have offended". When Francis met with 34 Chilean bishops in May, he made them focus on the roots of the sex abuse scandal in elitist attitudes and the Church's loss of missionary spirit. He asked for deeper reform and though he promised changes of personnel the Karadima and Barros cases were seen as symptoms of far greater problems. At the conclusion, all the active bishops and auxiliaries submitted their resignations in writing. Pope Francis accepted Barros' resignation on 11 June 2018 over the growing
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Chile. ==See also==