cardinal deacon, he announced to the world the election of Pope Benedict XVI. He was the first non-Italian to do so in centuries and the first Latin American. As protodeacon, Medina imposed the pallium on Pope Benedict XVI and was one of the three cardinals who made the public act of obedience to him at the papal inauguration. In retirement he returned to Chile in order to work as a parish priest. In the same period he published many short works of a pastoral nature. He died in Santiago on 3 October 2021. Views Medina was a man of controversial views. He was a supporter of the Chilean coup d'etat by General Augusto Pinochet and the regime it established. He was accused of having in his capacity as dean of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile of being one of the main denouncers of students and teachers suspected of having communist or socialist affiliations, many of whom become disappeared detainees. He never acknowledged the human rights violations of Pinochet's regime, including those featured in the Rettig Report or the Valech Report. In December 2008, at a Mass marking the second anniversary of the death of Pinochet, Medina condemned pop musician Madonna, who was appearing in Santiago. He said "The atmosphere in our city is pretty agitated because this woman is visiting and with incredibly shameful behavior provokes a wild and lustful enthusiasm." Sexual abuse of minors by priests The prominent 80-year-old priest Fernando Karadima was found guilty in January 2011 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of having sexually abused minors and ordered to retire to a life of prayer and penitence and never to exercise the priesthood in public again, Karadima was then accused under Chilean civil law of sexual abuse of minors, Medina is reported to have said that he doubted that the cleric would be sent to prison, since homosexual activity was not a crime in Chilean civil law and use of the term "sexual abuse" could be questioned: "With all due respect to the laws of my country, a child of 8 or 9 is very different from a 17-year-old ... A 17-year-old youngster knows what he is doing." He also remarked that priests are not immune to the devil's works: "Any informed Christian knows we are prone to weakness because of our human fragility. The devil gets in where he can. Priests