Pope Leo XIV has stated there ought to be no tolerance within the Catholic Church for any kind of abuse – sexual, religious or abuse of authority — and referred to as for “clear processes” to create a tradition of prevention throughout the church.
Leo made his first public feedback concerning the clergy intercourse abuse scandal in a written message to a Peruvian journalist who documented a very egregious case of abuse and monetary corruption in a Peruvian-based Catholic motion, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.
The message was learn out loud on Friday evening in Lima throughout a efficiency of a play primarily based on the Sodalitium scandal and the work of the journalist, Paola Ugaz.
“It’s pressing to root in the entire church a tradition of prevention that doesn’t tolerate any type of abuse – neither of energy or authority, nor abuse of conscience, religious or sexual abuse,” Leo stated within the message. “This tradition will solely be genuine whether it is born of energetic vigilance, of clear processes and honest listening to those that have been damage. For this, we’d like journalists.”
Leo is effectively conscious of the Sodalitium scandal, since he spent 20 years as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, the place the group was based in 1971. The then-Bishop Robert Prevost was chargeable for listening to the Sodalitium’s victims because the Peruvian bishops’ point-person for abuse victims and helped some attain monetary settlements with the group.
After Pope Francis introduced him to the Vatican in 2023, Prevost helped dismantle the group completely by overseeing the resignation of a strong Sodalitium bishop. The Sodalitium was formally suppressed earlier this yr, proper earlier than Francis died.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and all over the world, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
Now as pope, Leo has to supervise the dismantling of the Soldalitium and its sizeable belongings. The Vatican envoy on the bottom dealing with the job, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, learn out Leo’s message on Friday evening, showing alongside Ugaz on stage.
Within the message, Leo additionally praised journalists for his or her braveness in holding the highly effective to account, demanded public authorities shield them and stated a free press is an “widespread good that can not be renounced.”
Ugaz and a Sodalitium sufferer, Pedro Salinas, have confronted years of legal and civil litigation from Sodalitium and its supporters for his or her investigative reporting into the group’s twisted practices and monetary misconduct, and so they have praised Leo for his dealing with of the case.
The abuse scandal is among the thorniest dossiers dealing with Leo, particularly given calls for from survivors that he go even farther than Francis in making use of a zero-tolerance for abuse throughout the church, together with for abusers whose victims have been adults.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
