By Joshua McElwee and Cassandra Garrison
LIMA, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Pope Leo met with six victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Thursday in Lima in his second meeting with survivors during a 12-day trip to South America and discussed how the Church can better listen to abuse victims, the Vatican said.
Leo, the first Peruvian citizen to lead the Catholic Church, is on an emotional return visit to Peru through November 16 on the last leg of a three-country tour that has broken crowd records.
The pope, originally from Chicago, has met with survivors during several of his foreign visits, in an effort to help repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals tarnished its reputation.
The meeting on Thursday lasted more than an hour, said a Vatican statement.
“The pope met with each person individually, listening to their stories of suffering and pain,” it said.
“Together, they reflected on how to foster a change in mindset through listening to victims, seeking the truth, paths toward healing, and a commitment to creating safe environments,” it said.
Camila Bustamante, one survivor participating in the meeting, told Reuters it was “an important milestone” and that Leo appeared “very committed” to helping victims. But she cautioned that survivors rarely achieve closure in their cases.
“Victims are accustomed to persevering, even when things become difficult,” said Bustamante, who is also a journalist. “I believe the message must be that we should not give up and that we must continue working for a world without abuse.”
SURVIVOR GROUP CRITICIZES EARLIER PAPAL MEET
Leo served as a missionary in Peru for about 20 years and was the bishop of the northern city of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023.
Some survivors credit him with pushing for the Vatican to dissolve the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based Catholic community that faced allegations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse inside the group. The late Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, dissolved it in 2025.
The Vatican said on Thursday that some of the survivors Leo met in Peru were former members of the Sodalitium.
The pope, who also visited Uruguay and Argentina on his tour, met with five survivors of abuse in Buenos Aires on Monday.
One international survivors’ group, Ending Clergy Abuse, criticized that meeting for not including more survivors, including the at least 20 people abused in Argentina at an institute for deaf children in a notorious case.
The Vatican, which normally does not discuss how the pope’s meetings with victims are arranged, citing victims’ privacy, did not provide further information about how the Buenos Aires meeting was arranged.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Cassandra Garrison in Lima; additional reporting by Anthony Marina and Enrique Mandujano; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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