VATICAN CITY (AP) — He called me “la prima della classe,” or “the first in class.” It wasn’t necessarily a compliment.
I had earned the nickname from Pope Francis in 2018, a year that marked a low point in his papacy, and a turning point in how he handled cases of priests who sexually abused children.
The pope had just bungled a big abuse case in Chile and I, like many in the Vatican press corps, reported the scandal during Francis’ problematic trip to the South American country. Francis had discredited abuse victims, defended a bishop implicated in covering up their case and showed himself to be insensitive to their trauma.
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