Pope Leo XIV said in an interview that he tried to “understand and be close” of the victims in a case of abuses in Chiclayo, the Peruvian diocese that he directed as a bishop until 2023, and regretted that the slowness of the canonical justice has made the process more “painful”.
“The amount of time in which this whole process has passed has made it very painful. Sincerely, I feel very bad about it,” he explained in an interview with the correspondent in Rome by Crux, Elise Ann Allen, which has been included in the book Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century.
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The volume, which finally includes another interview about the future of the Church, was published this Thursday in Spanish through the Penguin publishing house in Peru.
The case referred to by the Pope involves the complaint filed by three sisters who met with the then Mons. Prevost in 2022 to report the abuses they had suffered by a priest years ago, when they were minors. According to the complainants, then Bishop Prevost – today Pope Leo XIV – did not initiate an effective canonical investigation and, as a consequence, the accused priest continued celebrating Mass.
The Pontiff recalled that, from the first moment, he personally listened to the victims and assured them that he believed in his testimony. “When you see someone suffering, you know that pain comes from somewhere. It is not invented,” he said.
As explained, the Diocese enabled a care center with professionals – abogers, psychologists and a doctor – to provide psychological and legal assistance. “We wanted them to have all possible support and knew where to go at any time,” he said.
In any case, he clarified that the process is complicated because the denounced priest “says he is innocent.” “I told them, that I believe the victims when they come to talk to me. (But) the priest (denounced) affirms that it is innocent. So the Church has to defend the rights of the victims and the defendants, and that is not easy,” he added.
The Holy Father pronounced for the first time about this judicial procedure, which is still open in the Dicastery of the Doctrine of Faith. However, he said he does not want to “say too much” because he is “the Pope now.”
“It’s not just Robert Prevost saying: ‘I thought I did the right thing,” he told the journalist.
The book also includes the statements of one of the three complainants, Ana María Quispe, in which he maintains that the diocese opened the case, but did not do an investigation. In addition, it accuses the ecclesiastical headquarters of using the fact that the civil justice of Peru has filed the case, to close it in Rome.
Quispe also insists that there is only “a sheet”, according to the book, in this file, which means, according to her, that there has been no appropriate investigation. However, the case remains under summary secret and it is not clear to which file the complainants refer.
However, the Pope also recognized that the slowness of judicial processes, both in the Church and in the civil justice of Peru, has caused additional suffering.
“These procedures are too long. In this case, in addition, the situation was complicated because I was transferred from the diocese shortly after the complaints were filed. The time elapsed has done everything much more painful,” explained the Pope, who, a few months after listening to the victims, was appointed, in January 2023, prefect of the Dicasterio for the bishops.
“Manipulated” case media
On the other hand, Leo XIV regretted that the case has been mediately manipulated, which, in his opinion, exposed the victims even more and amplified their pain.
“They have been victimized and revictimized. For them it has been very hard to see how everything became so public, when the diocese did not look for that exhibition,” he said.
After recognizing that the sexual abuse crisis is “a real crisis” that “is not resolved” also revealed that in its first two months of Pontificate it has initiated a study to find out why, legally, the cases of abuse take so long to resolve.
“Justice is too slow. It is an issue that I have already begun to address since my first two months as Pope, to begin to examine some of the legal problems involved: why do these processes take so long? How are everyone’s rights guaranteed?” He said in the interview.
The defendants also have rights
In the full interview, which occupies the last 32 pages of the biography published on Thursday, the Holy Father also states that the defendants have rights. However, he defends at all times that he believes the victims when they come to talk to him, although he adds that “there have been proven cases of some type of false accusation.”
“Priests whose lives have been destroyed by it. The law exists, and we can talk about the civil law or the law of the Church, but the law exists to protect the rights of all persons,” he said.
On the repair, the Pope said that “it would be naive” to think that it is enough to give them “some kind of financial compensation” or that “the priest is fired, as if those wounds simply went to disappear for that.”
Therefore, he asked to treat the victims “with great respect and understanding” and admitted that many in the Catholic Church may behave as “rookies” in learning on how to accompany these people and need help from professionals.
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.