For many decades the Catholic Church has had many cases of sexual abuse to the children that have been apart of their community. The sexual abuse of children was rarely discussed in public before the 1970s, and it was not until the 1980s that the first cases of molestation by priests came to light in the US. In the new century, more cases of abuse were revealed in more than a dozen countries.

What has recently happened was a priest, in Chile, being accused of sexually abusing children forcing the Pope, Pope Francis, to go and apologize to Chileans for ‘irreparable damages’. What occurred in Chile was the cover-up of sexual abuse to children by Rev Fernando Karadima from the 1980s to the 1990s. These cover-ups were done by Bishop Juan Barros  for over 27 years.

An interview from Maddie Gorrie, a student at ERHS, about her thoughts of this recent cover-up in Chile is as shown, “My personal belief is that Barros should not remain as a Bishop regardless of how long he has been in that position.”

While there in Chile, Pope Francis started his visit by referring directly to the scandal with a speech given in front of the President Michelle Bachelet, lawmakers, justices and other Chilean authorities. Unfortunately Pope Francis hurt the public more by asking for “proof” by the victims that they are truly victims. He then states that he realized that his asking for proof was a “slap in the face” to the victims but he never intended for it to crossover in a bad way.

Miss. Gorrie also claims, “Pope Francis has a good standing and has never meant to hurt a soul.  During his time as the Pope, he has done nothing but support all those who have been in tragic cases such as this.”

Pope Francis gave a small mea culpa (the acknowledgement of ones fault or error) while airborne in a press conference late Sunday as he returned home from Chile, his own comments plunged the Chilean church into a new crisis and gave questions to whether or not Pope Francis “gets it” about abuse. This trip to Chile, one of the most contested trip of Pope Francis’ papacy, said Barros would remain bishop of Osorno, Chile as long as no evidence implicating him in the cover-up of the abuse is brought forward.