Pope calls Chilean protesters `dumb', faces backlash
Pascale Bonnefoy
Santiago (Chile):
NYT NEWS SERVICE
Many watched in disbelief: There he was, Pope Francis, calling people in Osorno, a city in southern Chile, “dumb“ for protesting against a bishop accused of being complicit in clerical sexual abuse.
“The Osorno community is suffering because it's dumb,“ Pope Francis told a group of tourists on St Peter's Square, because it “has let its head be filled with what politicians say , judging a bishop without any proof.“
“Don't be led by the nose by the leftists who orchestrated all of this,“ the pope said.
The video, filmed by an Argentine tourist in May , was obtained by a Chilean TV station and broadcast on Friday , quickly instilling doubts here about the pope's commitment to protecting victims of sexual abuse.
Under a heavy rain, demonstrators with black balloons chanted again outside the San Mateo Cathedral in Osorno on Sunday as the bishop at the center of the controversy , Juan Barros, said mass. Bishop Barros was appointed by the pope to head the Diocese of Osorno this year, despite reports that he had covered up sexual abuses committed by the Rev Fernando Karadima, a prominent priest in Santiago, the capital.The protests have not stopped since, but this time the anger has turned to the pope.
