“God is the one who says who goes to heaven,” the pope explained.

What makes the Barros case so important is that if the pope removes him from office, it will be the first time a Catholic prelate has been explicitly cashiered because he covered up abuse by others.

The pope’s first comments on Syria since the missile attacks

At Villanova, the Newark archbishop spoke of “paradigm shifts” in the church and said “only the Lord" can judge who belongs among the faithful.

Pope Francis' letter asked "forgiveness of all those I have offended" and said he hoped to "be able to do it personally in the coming weeks."

Pope Francis admitted that he had badly misjudged the situation in Chile, or as he put it: “I fell into serious errors in the evaluation and perception of the situation, due especially to the lack of true and balanced information.”