IQUIQUE, Chile -- Pope Francis wrapped up his Chile visit Thursday by celebrating a Mass on land where he urged the South American nation to continue welcoming migrants and caring for the least fortunate among them.
At the end of the day, however, he set off a near-national uproar by accusing victims of Chile's most notorious pedophile priest of slander.
The backlash came after he was asked by a Chilean reporter about his contentious decision to appoint a bishop accused of helping keep quiet about the crimes of Chile's most prominent sexual abuser, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.
Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up Karadima's crimes, accusations of complicity by the victims of against Barros are "all calumny."
Patricio Navia, political science professor at Diego Portales University in Santiago, said the comment will likely erase any goodwill the pope had won over the issue.
Earlier Thursday, Francis traveled to Iquique, a popular beach destination in northern Chile that is also home to tens of thousands of migrants who have poured into the region's strongest and most stable economy in search of a better life.
The Argentine pope, who has frequently demanded wealthy countries open their arms to migrants and refugees, called Iquique a "land of dreams" for so many newcomers and urged Chile to continue to be a place of hospitality, jobs and justice, especially for those migrants who are exploited.
"Let us be attentive to the lack of steady employment, which destroys lives and homes," he said. "Let us be attentive to those who profit from the irregular status of many immigrants who don't know the language or who don't have their papers in order."
Francis' insistence that countries welcome and integrate migrants fleeing war, drought or hardship has often fallen on deaf ears in Europe, where the migrant crisis has been a driving factor on politics for years. While Chile isn't experiencing the same anti-immigrant backlash seen in the United States and Europe, the incoming right-wing government of President Sebastian Pinera is looking to crack down.
Pinera, who was previously president from 2010-14, said during the campaign that Chile would remain welcoming to immigrants who follow the law and aim to be productive members of society.
Chile had the fastest rate of migrant growth of any country in Latin America from 2010-15, according to U.N. and church statistics.
Most of the newcomers are Haitians, who often find a hard time integrating professionally because of language barriers.
Later, Francis headed to Peru for the second leg of his two-nation South American tour.
In Peru, Francis is expected to once again face pressure to address a church sex abuse scandal that exploded there in recent years thanks to allegations -- confirmed by the Vatican and external investigators -- of sexual, physical and psychological abuse in a Peru-based lay Catholic movement, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.
Last week, the Vatican took over Sodalitium and imposed a commissioner to run it after Peruvian prosecutors announced they were seeking to arrest its disgraced founder, Luis Figari.
A 2017 Sodalitium Christianae Vitae-commissioned independent investigation found that Figari was "narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation of [Sodalitium] members."
The report by two Americans and an Irish expert in abuse found that Figari sodomized recruits and forced them to fondle him and one another. He liked to watch them "experience pain, discomfort and fear," and humiliated them in front of others to enhance his control over them, the report found.
While Figari was never charged, many of the allegations against him were eventually confirmed by a Vatican inquiry. Figari was ordered to cut contact with members of the society last year and has been living in Italy ever since.
He has never provided concrete responses to the accusations, though the society has said they were likely true.
Some of Sodalitium's victims had denounced the Vatican's handling of the case, saying in 2017 that the yearslong delay in taking any action and subsequent decision to allow Figari to live in comfortable retirement in Rome was anything but satisfactory.
It is unclear whether Francis will confront the issue head-on in Peru as he did in Chile. In Santiago, Francis met with victims of abuse and begged forgiveness for the crimes of some priests.
Chile's Karadima sexually abused young boys in his parish. His crimes were covered up for years by the local church until the victims came forward and publicly denounced him. The Vatican sentenced him to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes in 2011.
Information for this article was contributed by Nicole Winfield and Peter Prengaman of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/19/2018