Pope Leo XIV to meet abuse survivors in Latin America
By Salvatore Cernuzio
The Holy See Press Office announced on Tuesday that Pope Leo XIV wishes to express his closeness to survivors of clerical sexual abuse during his Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru.
The announcement came a day after the Press Office confirmed the Pope’s November 6–17 visit to the three Latin American nations.
“During the days of the Holy Father’s upcoming Apostolic Journey to Latin America, some meetings are planned with people who are victims of abuse by members of the clergy and the Church,” read the statement. “These meetings respond to the Pope’s desire to express his closeness to those who have suffered and continue to suffer because of this violence, to build with them paths to healing accessible to anyone who needs them, and to ensure that the Church is a safe and spiritually healthy place that lives and communicates the Gospel.”
Encounters in Spain and France
Pope Leo met with groups of survivors during his recent Apostolic Journeys to Spain and France, when he held similar encounters in Madrid on June 8 and in Lourdes on September 27.
Both meetings were held behind closed doors and were marked by dialogue and listening to the painful testimonies of men and women who had suffered abuse—something Pope Leo XIV has described on other occasions as a “scourge,” a “scandal,” and a “real wound.”
In Madrid, the Pope received a group from Proyecto Repara, an initiative of the archdiocese, at the Apostolic Nunciature.
He assured them of his closeness and that of the entire Church community, and of “the commitment to ensuring that the proposals received serve as a foundation for further efforts and that the Church can truly be a safe and spiritually healthy place where wounds find comfort and healing.”
In Lourdes, during a two-hour meeting described as “intense” by five of the seven participants at a subsequent press conference, the Pope called for “utmost vigilance” and “utmost determination” in continuing along the path of truth, justice, forgiveness, and reparation, in order to establish “a culture of prevention and protection against such crimes.”
Afterwards, responding to journalists during the return flight from Metz to Rome, he added: “Sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem. When it happens within the Church, it actually has another whole dimension added to it, because people's lives of faith are deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed.”
“The Church, I think, is an important part of helping them to find healing,” the Pope added.
Previous meetings
Papal meetings with abuse survivors have been a regular feature of various Apostolic Journeys, from Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States in 2008 and subsequent visits to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany, to Pope Francis’ visits to Chile, Ireland, Portugal, and Belgium.
For Pope Leo XIV, Madrid marked his first meeting abroad with people who had suffered abuse within the Church.
However, in the preceding months, he had already received at the Vatican members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse, fifteen survivors of abuse in Belgium, and David Ryan, who was abused as a child at a college in Dublin, Ireland.
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