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 in Vatican City. 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 television station and broadcast Friday, quickly instilling doubts here about the pope's commitment to protecting victims of sexual abuse. 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. Bishop Barros spent over 30 years alongside Father Karadima, who was found guilty of sexual abuses by the Vatican in 2011 and ordered to a life of seclusion, prayer and penitence. According to some of Father Karadima's victims, Bishop Barros was witness to and complicit in the abuses.
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