Headline News

Pope Francis Caught Lying About Catholic Church Sexual Abuse By Priests In Chile, Covered It Up

Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up.

Published

8 years ago

February 5, 2018

Geoffrey Grider

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Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, the letter’s author and members of Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pope Francis came in to “clean up” the Catholic Church, promising “zero tolerance” for priests who sexually abused thier followers. But sadly, this has not been the case. In the most explosive revelations to date, Pope Francis has been caught lying about widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Chile, and about the letter hand-delivered to him written by Juan Carlos Cruz exposing it all.

The fact that Pope Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Revelation 17:5,6 (KJV)

The scandal exploded last month when Francis’ trip to South America was marred by protests over his vigorous defense of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of covering up the abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.

On the plane home, confronted by an AP reporter, the pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”

But members of the pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors say that in April 2015, they sent a delegation to Rome specifically to hand-deliver a letter to the pope about Barros. The letter from Juan Carlos Cruz detailed the abuse, kissing and fondling he says he suffered at Karadima’s hands, which he said Barros and others witnessed and ignored.

Four members of the commission met with Francis’ top abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, explained their objections to Francis’ recent appointment of Barros as a bishop in southern Chile, and gave him the letter to deliver to Francis.

“When we gave him (O’Malley) the letter for the pope, he assured us he would give it to the pope and speak of the concerns,” then-commission member Marie Collins told the AP. “And at a later date, he assured us that that had been done.”

Cruz, who now lives and works in Philadelphia, heard the same later that year.

“Cardinal O’Malley called me after the pope’s visit here in Philadelphia and he told me, among other things, that he had given the letter to the pope — in his hands,” he said in an interview at his home Sunday.

Neither the Vatican nor O’Malley responded to multiple requests for comment.

While the 2015 summit of Francis’ commission was known and publicized at the time, the contents of Cruz’s letter — and a photograph of Collins handing it to O’Malley — were not disclosed by members. Cruz provided the letter, and Collins provided the photo, after reading an AP story that reported Francis had claimed to have never heard from any Karadima victims about Barros’ behavior.

The Barros affair first caused shockwaves in January 2015 when Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of the leadership of Chile’s bishops’ conference and many local priests and laity. They accepted as credible the testimony against Karadima, a prominent Chilean cleric who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for abusing minors. Barros was a Karadima protege, and according to Cruz and other victims, he witnessed the abuse and did nothing.

“Holy Father, I write you this letter because I’m tired of fighting, of crying and suffering,” Cruz wrote in Francis’ native Spanish. “Our story is well known and there’s no need to repeat it, except to tell you of the horror of having lived this abuse and how I wanted to kill myself.”

Cruz and other survivors had for years denounced the cover-up of Karadima’s crimes, but were dismissed as liars by the Chilean church hierarchy and the Vatican’s own ambassador in Santiago, who refused their repeated requests to meet before and after Barros was appointed.

After Francis’ comments backing the Chilean hierarchy caused such an outcry in Chile, he was forced last week to do an about-face: The Vatican announced it was sending in its most respected sex-crimes investigator to take testimony from Cruz and others about Barros.

In the letter to the pope, Cruz begs for Francis to listen to him and make good on his pledge of “zero tolerance.”

“Holy Father, it’s bad enough that we suffered such tremendous pain and anguish from the sexual and psychological abuse, but the terrible mistreatment we received from our pastors is almost worse,” he wrote.

Cruz goes on to detail in explicit terms the homo-eroticized nature of the circle of priests and young boys around Karadima, the charismatic preacher whose El Bosque community in the well-to-do Santiago neighborhood of Providencia produced dozens of priestly vocations and five bishops, including Barros.

He described how Karadima would kiss Barros and fondle his genitals, and do the same with younger priests and teens, and how young priests and seminarians would fight to sit next to Karadima at the table to receive his affections.

“More difficult and tough was when we were in Karadima’s room and Juan Barros — if he wasn’t kissing Karadima — would watch when Karadima would touch us — the minors — and make us kiss him, saying: ‘Put your mouth near mine and stick out your tongue.’ He would stick his out and kiss us with his tongue,” Cruz told the pope. “Juan Barros was a witness to all this innumerable times, not just with me but with others as well.”

“Juan Barros covered up everything that I have told you,” he added.

Barros has repeatedly denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up. “I never knew anything about, nor ever imagined, the serious abuses which that priest committed against the victims,” he told the AP recently. “I have never approved of nor participated in such serious, dishonest acts, and I have never been convicted by any tribunal of such things.”

For the Osorno faithful who have opposed Barros as their bishop, the issue isn’t so much a legal matter requiring proof or evidence, as Barros was a young priest at the time and not in a position of authority over Karadima. It’s more that if Barros didn’t “see” what was happening around him and doesn’t find it problematic for a priest to kiss and fondle young boys, he shouldn’t be in charge of a diocese where he is responsible for detecting inappropriate sexual behavior, reporting it to police and protecting children from pedophiles like his mentor.

Cruz had arrived at Karadima’s community in 1980 as a vulnerable teenager, distraught after the recent death of his father. He has said Karadima told him he would be like a spiritual father to him, but instead sexually abused him.

Based on testimony from Cruz and other former members of the parish, the Vatican in 2011 removed Karadima from ministry and sentenced him to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes. Now 87, he lives in a home for elderly priests in Santiago; he hasn’t commented on the scandal and the home has declined to accept calls or visits from the news media.

The victims also testified to Chilean prosecutors, who opened an investigation into Karadima after they went public with their accusations in 2010. Chilean prosecutors had to drop charges because too much time had passed, but the judge running the case stressed that it wasn’t for lack of proof.

While the victims’ testimony was deemed credible by both Vatican and Chilean prosecutors, the local church hierarchy clearly didn’t believe them, which might have influenced Francis’ view. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz has acknowledged he didn’t believe the victims initially and shelved an investigation. He was forced to reopen it after the victims went public.

He is now one of the Argentine pope’s key cardinal advisers.

By the time he finally got his letter into the pope’s hands in 2015, Cruz had already sent versions to many other people, and had tried for months to get an appointment with the Vatican ambassador. The embassy’s Dec. 15, 2014, email to Cruz — a month before Barros was appointed — was short and to the point:

“The apostolic nunciature has received the message you emailed Dec. 7 to the apostolic nuncio,” it read, “and at the same time communicates that your request has been met with an unfavorable response.”

One could argue that Francis didn’t pay attention to Cruz’s letter, since he receives thousands of letters every day from faithful around the world. He can’t possibly read them all, much less remember the contents years later. He might have been tired and confused after a weeklong trip to South America when he told an airborne press conference that victims never came forward to accuse Barros of cover-up.

But this was not an ordinary letter, nor were the circumstances under which it arrived in the Vatican.

Francis had named O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, to head his Commission for the Protection of Minors based on his credibility in having helped clean up the mess in Boston after the U.S. sex abuse scandal exploded there in 2002. The commission gathered outside experts to advise the church on protecting children from pedophiles and educating church personnel about preventing abuse and cover-ups.

The four commission members who were on a special subcommittee dedicated to survivors had flown to Rome specifically to speak with O’Malley about the Barros appointment and to deliver Cruz’s letter. A press release issued after the April 12, 2015, meeting read: “Cardinal O’Malley agreed to present the concerns of the subcommittee to the Holy Father.”

Commission member Catherine Bonnet, a French child psychiatrist who took the photo of Collins handing the letter to O’Malley, said the commission members had decided to descend on Rome specifically when O’Malley and other members of the pope’s group of nine cardinal advisers were meeting, so that O’Malley could put it directly into the pope’s hands.

“Cardinal O’Malley promised us when Marie gave to him the letter of Juan Carlos that he will give to Pope Francis,” she said.

O’Malley’s spokesman in Boston referred requests for comment to the Vatican. Neither the Vatican press office, nor officials at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, responded to calls and emails seeking comment.

But O’Malley’s remarkable response to Francis’ defense of Barros and to his dismissal of the victims while he was in Chile, is perhaps now better understood.

In a rare rebuke of a pope by a cardinal, O’Malley issued a statement Jan. 20 in which he said the pope’s words were “a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse,” and that such expressions had the effect of abandoning victims and relegating them to “discredited exile.”

A day later, Francis apologized for having demanded “proof” of wrongdoing by Barros, saying he meant merely that he wanted to see “evidence.” But he continued to describe the accusations against Barros as “calumny” and insisted he had never heard from any victims.

Even when told in his airborne press conference Jan. 21 that Karadima’s victims had indeed placed Barros at the scene of Karadima’s abuse, Francis said: “No one has come forward. They haven’t provided any evidence for a judgment. This is all a bit vague. It’s something that can’t be accepted.”

He stood by Barros, saying: “I’m certain he’s innocent,” even while saying that he considered the testimony of victims to be “evidence” in a cover-up investigation.

“If anyone can give me evidence, I’ll be the first to listen,” he said.

Cruz said he felt like he had been slapped when he heard those words. “I was upset,” he said, “and at the same time I couldn’t believe that someone so high up like the pope himself could lie about this.” source

Related Topics:Catholic Church chile Pope Francis

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Free Bible Program

Chaplain Marshall At The Leon County Detention Facility Says The Need For Bibles Is Urgent As Inmates Are Being Turned Away From Lack Of Supply

Published

2 days ago

February 14, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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The Leon County Detention Facility in Florida is struggling with an inability to keep their inmates supplied with Bibles as the need is great but the supplies are few

As many of you know, our whole family was hit with the Subclade K super flu this week, and all activity here at NTEB basically stopped. Lori and I want to thank everyone for your fervent and effectual prayer for our recovery. This is why we are a praying people, so thank you, everyone. Well, while I am not yet fully recovered, I thought I had better dust off the keyboard and write about something. Nothing in the news really interested me, and then I saw an email come over from Chaplain Marshall at the Leon County Detention Facility in Florida. What he had to say snapped me right to attention. Time to write.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36 (KJB)

Dr. Marshall’s email says “We really need your help. We are struggling with constant requests for the bible. We have over 1000 inmates. I am reaching out because we should never have to turn an inmate away who is seeking Gods word. The need is urgent so please send us as many bibles as possible on an ongoing basis. May God Bless You. We can only accept PAPER Bibles.” This is the very reason for which Bibles Behind Bars was raised up for, to send God’s preserved word into as many jail and prison cells as possible. They need a thousand Bibles are quickly as possible, and with your help we can do it. The cost to send these Bibles out is $4,550, please pray about joining with us to get this done. Bibles Behind Bars is the chaplain’s lifeline that allows them to do the work God has called them to do. Help us to keep the gospel supply lines open!

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

If God has prospered you, please take a moment to click on the donate button to help us in this monumental task of providing King James Bibles, New Testaments, scripture portions, gospel tracts as well as Spanish Bibles to inmates in jails and prisons from Florida to Alaska, and every state in between. We need your prayers, we need your generous financial support, and we need you to stand with us in the closing days of the Church Age. Thank you so very much, TO THE FIGHT!!!

NOTE: If you need a 501 C3 Letter of Donation for tax purposes, please send your donation to:

NTEB Ministries
1340 N Great Neck Rd.
Ste. 1272-129
Virginia Beach, VA 23454.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

Super Bowl Sunday LX 2026 Is An Excellent Illustration Of The ‘Falling Away’ Complete With Games Played In A Roman Colosseum Under An Egyptian Obelisk

Published

1 week ago

February 8, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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No matter which Super Bowl LX 60 you pick today, or which Halftime Show you watch, you will be celebrating that which God hates

America is not a Christian nation, and it is filled with professing Christians who know less about Bible doctrine than most industrialized countries. They will go to a stadium and “bang their heads for the Lord” for hours on end, and yet spend not a fraction of that time in God’s preserved word. If you watch any of the Super Bowl XL 2026 proceedings today, and I do not recommend you do, what I am telling you will become instantly apparent if your know your Bible.

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Psalms 19:7-10 (KJB)

We had no Sunday Service this morning due to the fact that the Type A flu has hit me and my family pretty hard, and your prayers for a speedy recovery for all of us is very much appreciated. But after 17 years of reporting on the ‘woke’ Super Bowl and the Christian Nationalist Super Bowl, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t once again throw the NTEB end times hat into the ring. Now, the ‘woke’ Super Bowl is sad, pathetic, and instantly connects you to Romans 1 in your King James Bible. The Christian Nationalist Super Bowl, while ideologically better, instantly connects you to Acts 20, 28, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3. This year we have a treat! The NFL is providing a highly LGBTQIA-friendly Halftime show while Turning Point USA gives us the ‘let’s drink whiskey and set stuff on fire for the LORD’ Halftime Show’. We get both. If you think that the choice is an “easy one”, you’d be quite mistaken. They both lead you away from God and away from the Bible, and to the Vanity Fair found in The Pilgrim’s Progress.

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Matthew 15:8 (KJB)

Before we go further, let’s pull off to the side and see what the NFL and their Super Bowl actually represents. First and foremost, the Super Bowl is played on a Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead. Secondly, the players are called “stars” and “idols”, two expressions found in the Bible connected with idol worship. The Lombardi Trophy is an Easter egg on top of an Egyptian obelisk. Come on, now, you knew that the football represents the Easter egg from the Roman Catholic Church and ancient Babylon, right? Why do you think the NFL uses Roman numerals? Why does the NFL show you the Roman Catholic Church in all their marketing? Stay with me now, the water only gets deeper. Third, the hundreds of millions of viewers will be bombarded with just about everything that God hates. Immorality, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, gambling, and lust just to name a few. Why do you think that the same corporations we claim to hate pay between $8-10 million dollars for a 30-second commercial. You know what that makes you? A sitting duck. You know what that makes your children? Groomed. Everything I just told you will be exactly the same no matter which Super Bowl you watched or which Halftime show you support today.

FUN FACT: Kid Rock is no better than Bad Bunny, he just sins with the stuff the Laodicean Church approves of. All sin is equally offensive and damning in the eyes of God, and requires a payment.

You know why your pastor doesn’t preach against all this, or any of this? They’re afraid of the pushback they would get. Gotta keep that Building Program going, even if it means selling out your congregation to do it. We have forgotten that God, according to the Bible, is not on the side of the great and mighty America. He is on His Side. I am 100% against abortion, but ask yourselves this. If you “stand for the unborn”, which is a good thing, and at the same time go to the bars with Kid Rock, John Rich, Joel Webbon, Doug Wilson, and all the others far too numerous to mention, is God somehow fooled?. Billy Sunday was a great preacher, and many got saved, but Prohibition did nothing but create a massive cash economy for the Mafia. Which destroyed peoples lives for generations and is still doing it. You say that we have to “Make America A Christian Nation Again”, right? Go ahead and try, and all you do is advance the kingdom of the coming Antichrist through the 7 Mountains Mandate.

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

I’m not preaching to the choir, I am preaching to sinners, saved or lost, and calling you to pick a side before it all comes down. You have Christian liberty if you’re saved, but let me suggest you use it to preach the gospel. The LORD is watching, choose carefully.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

End Times

The Opening Ceremony Of The 2026 Winter Olympics Featured A Burning Cauldron With Everlasting Flames In The Middle Of The All-Seeing Eye In Hell

Published

1 week ago

February 7, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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The opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics was ripped right from the pages of end times events laid out in the book of Revelation

The world just can’t help themselves, can they? At the opening ceremony to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy last night, what was intended to be a beautifully designed version of the ‘Olympic Cauldron’ representing the ‘eternal flame’ for the duration of the games was actually a hellish depiction of the all-seeing eye of Horus coming out from the eternal fires of Hell. Ever see ‘Stranger Things’? They created the Olympic Cauldron as the Demogorgon come to life for our entertainment.

“The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:” Revelation 14:10 (KJB)

A massive triumphal arch, a blazing, suspended centerpiece. The entire scene drenched in blood-red light with fire raining down from the heavens like a victory celebration for something ancient, pagan, and proud. Whether the designers intended “the all-seeing eye” or not, the effect is the same: a global spectacle built on awe, fear, and worshipful attention—centered on fire. The very same Hell fire now being mocked and denounced by people like Kirk Cameron. Christian, wake up!

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The modern world doesn’t merely tolerate darkness—it packages it. Stylizes it. Sells it as culture. Then tells you you’re “negative” or “conspiratorial” if you notice the tone. But Bible believers aren’t called to applaud the production. We’re called to reprove it. Reprove things like the wicked NFL Super Bowl and their Sodomite Half Time Show, and yes, the Turning Point All-American Halftime show promoted openly by Laodicean preacher Franklin Graham. It is nothing but wickedness everywhere you look, and that’s exactly as your King James Bible says it will be. Fill your pockets with gospel tracts and go out into the ‘highways and hedges’ and tell them about Jesus. Time is almost gone, make the most of it for the Lord, and get ready for the Judgment Seat of Christ. Amen? TO THE FIGHT!!!