LIMA — Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Peru on Sunday by denouncing the plague of corruption sweeping through Latin America. But controversy over his accusations that Chilean sex abuse victims slandered a bishop continued to cast a shadow over what has become the most contested and violent trip of his papacy.
A day after Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, his top adviser on sex abuse, publicly rebuked him for his Chile remarks, Francis was reminded that the Vatican has faced years of criticism for its inaction over a similar sex abuse scandal in Peru.
‘‘Francis, here there IS proof,’’ read a banner hanging from a Lima building along his motorcade route Sunday. The message was a reference to Francis’ Jan. 18 comments in Iquique, Chile, that there was not ‘‘one shred of proof’’ that a protege of Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, knew of Karadima’s abuse and did nothing to stop it.
Karadima’s victims have accused the bishop, Juan Barros, of complicity in the coverup. Barros has denied the accusations, and Francis backed him by saying the victims’ claims were ‘‘all calumny.’’
His comments sparked such an outcry that both the Chilean government and his own top adviser on abuse stepped in to publicly rebuke him, an extraordinary correction of a pope from both church and state. The criticisms were all the more remarkable given that they came on the Argentina-born pontiff’s home turf in Latin America.
Police said more than 1 million people gathered at an airbase for Francis’ final Mass in Peru. O'Malley was among dozens of bishops and cardinals celebrating the service under a canopied altar.
Francis tried to move beyond the scandal Sunday, joking with cloistered nuns that they were taking advantage of his visit to finally get out and get a breath of fresh air. And he denounced a corruption scandal in Latin America that has even implicated his Peruvian host, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
In a meeting with bishops, Francis said the bribery scandal that has centered on Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht was ‘‘just a small anecdote’’ of the corruption and graft that has thrown much of Latin American politics into a state of crisis.
‘‘If we fall into the hands of people who only understand the language of corruption, we’re toast,’’ the Argentine pope said in unscripted remarks.
It was the second time Francis addressed corruption during his visit to Peru, where Kuczynski narrowly escaped impeachment over his ties to Odebrecht in December. The company has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to politicians.
It is extremely rare for a cardinal to publicly criticize a pope, but O’Malley said that Francis’ remarks were ‘‘a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse.’’ He said such expressions of disbelief made abuse survivors feel abandoned and left in ‘‘discredited exile.’’
