Pope Leo XIV stated that there ought to be no tolerance for any type of abuse within the Catholic Church – sexual, non secular or abuse of authority – and known as for “clear processes” to create a tradition of prevention within the church.
Leo made his first public feedback concerning the sexual abuse of the clergy in a written message to a Peruvian journalist who documented a very outrageous case of abuse and monetary corruption in Catholic motion based mostly in Peru, The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.
The announcement was learn aloud on Friday night time in Lima throughout a play on the premise of a scandal with sodalitis and the work of journalist Paola Ugaz.
“It’s pressing to eradicate a tradition of prevention all through the Church, which doesn’t tolerate any type of abuse – neither of energy, nor authority, nor abuse of conscience, non secular or sexual violence,” Leo says within the message. “This tradition will solely be genuine whether it is born of energetic vigilance, from clear processes and honest listening to those that have been harm. We want journalists for that.”
Leo is effectively acquainted with the sodalith scandal, as he spent twenty years as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, the place the group was based in 1971.
The then Bishop Robert Presses was liable for listening to the victims of the Sodalithium as a Peruvian bishop’s particular person for victims of abuse and helped some to achieve monetary settlements with the group.
After Pope Francis introduced him to the Vatican in 2023, Prevost helped to dismantle the group fully by the supervision of the resignation of a robust bishop of Sodalithy.
The sodalite was formally suppressed earlier this 12 months, simply earlier than Francis died.
Now, as a pope, Leo should monitor the dismantling of Solidalithium and his important belongings. The Vatican’s Vatican’s Holy, processing the work, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, learn Leo’s message on Friday night time, showing with Ugas on stage.
Within the message, Leo additionally praised journalists for his or her braveness to maintain the highly effective to report, to ask for public authorities to defend them, and acknowledged that the free press was “a typical good that can’t be refused.”
Ugas and sufferer of sodalitis, Pedro Salinas, have been confronted with years of felony and civil court docket disputes by sodalitis and his supporters for his or her investigative reporting of the group’s twisted practices and monetary violations, and so they praised Leo for the processing of the case.
The abuse scandal is among the most traversal information going through Leo, particularly given the calls for of the survivors that it goes even additional than Francis when making use of zero tolerance for the church abuse, together with abusers whose victims are adults.
