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Popeular History: A Catholic History of the WorldAuthor: Gregg Gassman
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֎Red Hat Fest '24 V Fernando Natalio Cardinal CHOMALÍ GARIB
Episode 265
Sunday, 1 March, 2026
IMAGE CREDIT: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile from Santiago, Chile, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons LINKS: Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bchga.html Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB on Gcatholic.org: https://gcatholic.org/p/8844 2023 Vatican Biographical Summary of Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB (Italian): https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/10/25/321025d.html Chilean Bishops’ Conference 2023 bio of Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB (Spanish): https://iglesiadeconcepcion.cl/noticias/monsenor-fernando-chomali-ha-sido-nombrado-arzobispo-de-santiago/ 2016 Revised statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Italian): https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/11/05/161105b.html 2018 BBC coverage of the Father Karadima case through the eyes of one of his victims, James Hamilton: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45486176 2010 NY Times coverage of the Father Karadima case: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/americas/28chile.html 2010 The Media Project coverage of Father Karadima case: https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165612/http://themediaproject.org/article/chile-wrestles-religion-and-impunity 2014 NCR coverage of Father Karadima https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/chilean-cardinals-close-pope-stained-abuse-cover-ups 2018 24 Horas report on church membership and trust (Spanish): https://www.24horas.cl/papafranciscoenchile/cifra-de-chilenos-que-se-declaran-catolicos-bajo-desde-73-a-45-en-la-ultima-decada-2612241 2015 NCR coverage of the controversy over Bishop Barros’ appointment: https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/controversial-chilean-bishops-appointment-continues-divide-diocese 2015 Huffington Post coverage of Bishop Barros controversy: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/backlash-against-chilean_b_6955290/amp Voice of America coverage of Pope Francis’ trip to Chile: https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-wraps-up-latin-america-trip/4217547.html Firebombings: https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Update-3-churches-firebombed-in-Chile-during-pope-visit-469520773.html?outputType=amp 2018 BBC coverage of the mass resignation of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44442233 More via NCR: https://www.ncronline.org/news/francis-accepts-two-more-chilean-bishops-resignations-continuing-abuse-fallout More via NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618825779/pope-francis-accepts-resignations-of-3-bishops-over-chilean-abuse-scandal More via Religionnews.com: https://religionnews.com/2018/08/03/will-pope-francis-solve-the-abuse-crisis/ December 2024 The Pillar interview: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/speed-dating-the-new-cardinals-could Cardinal Garib Washing His Shirt: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DJR_m0xgCsT/ TRANSCRIPT: Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. One thing that I’ll always remember about the end of my daily show experience is that one accompanying factor was the start of a war. It can be hard to keep at things when you’re feeling down, and war had broken out in the Middle East the day I broke my streak of over 100 daily episodes. That’s on my mind again because today’s Cardinal is of Palestinian descent, and another war broke out today. So before we move on, I want to endorse both working for peace and praying for peace. Goodness knows we need to do all we can, and that we need all the help we can get. Also, before we get into things, please note that this episode was basically the one that sealed the deal on me going into my most recent hiatus. It took more research than expected because of the number of serious accusations adjacent to the story of our Cardinal of the day. Arguably I *could* have told most of future Cardinal Chomalí’s story without getting into the Karadima case and subsequent Barros controversy, but that would have taken a lot of intentional sidelining of topics that unfortunately need to be front and center regardless of how controversial they are. Dozens of times we’ve seen the consequences of downplaying or sidelining such things, and I don’t intend to contribute to that. If Cardinal Chomalí goes to the next round, I promise more of the focus will be on his own life and less on the dung he found himself shoveling. And now for the official warning: please note that this episode includes extensive discussion of scandal caused by the sexual abuse of minors and coverups. Listener discretion is advised. Today we’re looking at our fifth bishop from the list of new Cardinals Pope Francis elevated on December 7th 2024–his last consistory for the creation of new Cardinals. Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB, who describes himself as a descendent of a Palestinian, was born on March 10, 1957 in Santiago, Chile, the capital and largest city basically in the middle of the almost comically long country along South America’s Pacific coast. Fernando is one of our late blooming vocations–his first degree was in Civil Engineering, though admittedly it was from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, which does host a seminary, though presumably our civil engineer didn’t go through that side of things. Instead, when Fernando did decide to go to seminary and study theology and philosophy and such, it was through the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago, a storied institution in the suburbs. Enter the B plot for today, because in 1984, the same year Fernando entered seminary, a group of parishioners reported the “improper conduct” of another I cannot emphasize enough quite different Fernando, Father Fernando Karadima. The report was made to the Archbishop of Santiago, a man whose name I will not trouble you with because this is going to be an episode with a lot of names as-is and he’ll get his own episode in time. Allegedly the letter containing the report was “torn up and thrown away”, in any event nothing came of it at the time. The Archbishop’s secretary, Juan Barros, possibly already Father Barros by this stage, was a protege of Karadima and would later wind up accused of helping cover up Father Karadima’s crimes, and this is not the last time we will see him, so keep that name in mind. To recap, we have Father Karadima, a powerfully connected child rapist, potential Father Barros, a fan of Father Karadima and an alleged enabler, and not-yet Father Chomalí, our Cardinal of the day, who isn’t connected to our B-Plot yet, so let’s move his side of things forward and see how this plays out. In 1991, after seven years of study on top of his engineering degree, Franando Chomalí was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. After two years of yet further study, he then obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology from the Gregorian in Rome, followed a year later by a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the same storied institution in 1994. I did see some reference to pastoral work, but considering we’re like five degrees deep and he still isn’t done studying–hello masters in bioethics from the John Paul II Institute in Rome–it’s not going to surprise you that Father Chomalí mainly followed the academic route, serving in bioethical and theological posts at the Major Pontifical Seminary of Santiago and the Pontifical University of Chile–both of these, you might recall, being institutions that he had personally attended. In 2001, presumably in part due to his bioethics credentials, he was added to the Pontifical Academy for Life for life, which, yes, I’m repeating myself because not only is “for Life” part of the name, but apparently it was a lifetime appointment. Unfortunately in 2016 Pope Francis shook things up so there are no more appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life for life. In 2003, our B plot shows back up, with a successor Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago getting more reports of Father Karadima’s monstrosities. You’ll be pleased to know that at this point the Chilean Bishop’s Conference had new processes in place and you’ll be furious to know that those new processes were basically ignored while the Cardinal told the complainant that he was praying for him. Nothing was done, hashtag thoughts and prayers. The next year the same cardinal received another report, and you’ll be pleased to know that this time the case wound up referred to a specialist, who determined the allegations were credible and recommended action. You’ll then be *again* furious to learn that the Cardinal proceeded to ignore the determination and dismissed the case anyways. You’ll hear more about all this in *that* cardinal’s episode, for now let’s get back to Fr Chomalí, whose phone is ringing. His white phone. It’s Pope Benedict, calling to make him Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago and Titular Bishop of Nola because you apparently just can’t be an auxiliary bishop without a little patch of North Africa to theoretically but not practically call your own. Anyways, that all went down in 2006. In 2010, the Karadima case became international news for the first time when victims filed a criminal complaint in Chile’s courts, twenty-five years after that first 1985 letter to Church authorities. The civil courts did not prove more helpful, dismissing the lawsuit due to the time having passed since the events in question, which really has me wanting to flip some tables. For what it’s worth, the presiding judge made it clear that she thought Karadima was guilty as sin. The accusations now being public apparently stirred the Church into action. Suddenly the stonewalling Cardinal–reminder that’s not Chomalí but another prelate we’ll discuss in time–sent a reportedly 700 page file over to the Vatican, which in 2011 found Karadima guilty of abusing minors and sentenced him to a "life of prayer and penitence”. The by then 80 year old Karadima would continue protesting his innocence and by some accounts flaunt his ban from ministry, saying Mass for his followers, which, yes, he definitely *still* had followers. Also in 2011, our Cardinal of the Day Bishop Chomalí became Archbishop Chomalí when Pope Benedict made him Archbishop of Concepción, a bit south of Santiago, which was his first time really serving outside the capital apart from his studies in Rome. And with the Karadima case casting a shadow over the Church across the country, Archbishop Chomalí had his work cut out for him, with trust in the Church as an institution plummeting from 61% in 2010 to just 36% a year later according to polling data. Incredibly, Archbishop Chomalí managed to *increase* church membership in these conditions, probably aided by the broadly popular election of Pope Francis in 2013. Pope Francis wasn’t magic though, and it’s time to talk about one of his bigger mistakes. Remember Juan Barros, the Archbishop’s secretary who was accused of helping protect his mentor Father Karadima? Well, he had been made a bishop back in the 90s, and in 2015 against the advice of basically everyone everywhere, Pope Francis decided to give Barros a new post as Bishop of Osorno. One of the voices against the appointment was Archbishop Chomalí, who was serving as Apostolic Administrator of Osorno at the time and so had front row seats to just how poorly it was coming across, and urged Pope Francis to reconsider. In addition, about half the clergy of the diocese publicly opposed the move–coming out in public against the guy who is set to be your boss is pretty gutsy–and even the politicians got involved, with 51 members of Chile’s National Congress signing a letter opposing the move. Pope Francis carried on undaunted, and Bishop Barros was installed in a rather poorly attended ceremony, that is, poorly attended unless you count the hundreds of protestors who stormed the Cathedral. Bishop Barros came over to Osorno from the post he had held as the Military Ordinary for Chile. With that spot now vacant, you guessed it, Archbishop Chomalí was tapped to administer things for Chile’s military, which, it’s worth noting, grants him the rare privilege of being associated with Antarctica on GCatholic’s database, thanks to the Chapel of St. Mary Queen of Peace in Chile’s Antarctic zone. The controversy over Bishop Barros came to a head a few years later, when Pope Francis visited Chile. To be clear, the visit *didn’t* calm things down–the word “firebombings” comes to mind–and Pope Francis didn’t make a conciliatory gesture during the trip. Quite the opposite in fact. Pope Francis wound up defending his choice to appoint Bishop Barros and keep him in place, stating that the case against Barrros was baseless slander, committing that if he ever received evidence, he would respond. With the gauntlet thrown, the evidence apparently came, such that within months Pope Francis was apologizing for his stance, and the *entire* Bishops’ Conference of Chile offered their resignations to the Pope, which might give a sense of the magnitude reached here. In the end, most of the bishops, including Archbishop Chomalí, were allowed to carry on, resignations not accepted, though Bishop Barros and three others were sacked as part of the reckoning. Later in the year, presumably as additional fallout from the visit and the subsequent fresh round of investigations, Karadima himself was laicized. *Mr.* Karadima would die in 2021. In October of 2023, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Chomalí as the fourteenth Archbishop of Santiago de Chile. He became President of the Episcopal Conference of Chile at the same time, which I imagine was no coincidence, though there have been times recently when the two posts are held by different people. He had been the Conference’s Vice President since 2021. Given his influential post in Chile’s capital, Archbishop Chomalí’s inclusion in Pope Francis’s last batch of new Cardinals was hardly a surprise. Even though Pope Francis didn’t heed his advice at the time, it’s likely that Chomalí’s advice against one of the biggest mistakes of Pope Francis’ papacy was on both their minds as Francis made him a Cardinal. Shortly after Cardinal Chomalí was elevated, The Pillar, which is becoming something of a go-to source for church news, published a series of short interviews with several of the new Cardinals, including Chomalí. And so as we prepare to wrap things up for today, I’d like to offer you a short quotation from that piece so you can get a bit of flavoring from him rather than from the various dumpster fires he was tasked with putting out: “Christian anthropology says that if we want to be happy, we have to give ourselves to others. And secular anthropology tells us that we have to seek happiness by our own means. But things end up badly for us that way because we find ourselves in a society that competes but doesn't find itself. And that is precisely where conflicts arise.” Along with his brother cardinals, Fernando Natalio Cardinal CHOMALÍ GARIB participated in the recent election of Pope Leo. Just before the conclave, Cardinal Chomalí shared a video of himself hand-washing his shirt as part of his preparations, and of course you can catch that exciting link in the show notes. Cardinal Chomali will be eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2037. Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and we’ll be talking about another one of the new cardinals next month. Or well, later this month, since this episode is a bit late. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
