Just a few weeks before Leo XIV was inaugurated as a pope, he was complained to the Vatican by the activist group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (Snap). That’s what CNN writes. Snap works with victims of abuse in the church. They believe that the new pope “injured vulnerable people and created scandal” in connection with the handling of abuse charges in 2000 in Chicago and 2022 in Peru. In both cases, priests were accused of sexual abuse. Now the group believes that Leo XIV has not handled the charges after the book. Former missionary: The new pope was a missionary in Peru in the 1980s. From 1998 he was head of the Augustines in the same country. In 2015, Pope Frans appointed him bishop of Chiclayo in Peru. He has been criticized for several years for handling an abuse charges against priests when he was a bishop in this city. Photo: Francesco SFORZA / REUTERS / NTB allowed a priest accused of abuse Bo near primary school In 2000, Pope Leo XIV was the leader of the Augustinian Order in Chicago. He let the priest James Ray live in a monastery right at an elementary school, while Ray had been accused of abusing at least 13 children, according to CNN. “The school was not informed,” Snap spokesman Sarah Pearson told the American broadcaster. Since 1991, the priest in question had been banned from being alone with minors. He lost his job as a priest in 2012. The organization believes Prevost has joined schoolchildren by approving the priest to live so close to school, writes Newsweek. In 2002, the rules of Catholic priests in the United States became more stringent. Ray had to move from the monastery. A lawyer who previously represented one of the victims in the case says he is shocked that the order let the priest live so close to a school. He tells CNN that he has no detailed knowledge of Prevost’s handling of the case. “There is a comprehensive documentary certificate that the archdiocese was aware of a number of reports of serious, devastating sexual crimes that were allegedly committed by Ray against children by the 1980s,” Patrick Thronson told CNN. – Failing to notify the authorities The second case is of recent date. In April 2022, three women sent a notice to Leo XIV. At that time he was a bishop in the town of Chiclayo in Peru. The women accused two priests of committing sexual abuse against them in 2007, when they were still minors. In December 2022, the women submitted civilian complaints. They claimed that the diocese had not done anything, or informed civilian authorities about the charges they had submitted a few months earlier. In the complaint, Snap claims that Prevost failed to investigate the case, that he did not inform civil authorities and that he did not act against the priests in question. The diocese has commented on the charges and says they suspended one priest after the complaint. The other was no longer in service due to age and poor health. They also sent the complaint to the Vatican’s Faith Office in Rome, they say. – Will not have secrecy Snap has not yet received a response to the complaint, which was sent to the Vatican a few weeks ago. “Now that Prevost is Leo XIV, we are worried that the cases will never be investigated,” spokesman Pearson told CNN. Snap works to remove abuse priests from the vicarage and the church forever. In connection with the pope elections, the group wrote an open letter to the new pope asking, among other things, zero -tolerance for sexual abuse. The new pope has previously said that he does not want secrecy about sexual abuse in the church. “On behalf of the church, we want to tell people that if there has been any offense, if they have suffered or are the victims of a priest’s wrongdoing, they should report it so that we can act for the benefit of the church, the person and the community, Prevost told Peruan La Repubblica in 2019. Hadland, tells news that the handling of the abuse charges in Peru has been discussed for a long time. Hadland has been a priorist for a number of years at the Catherine Home in Oslo and is a central figure in the Catholic environment in Norway. “There is disagreement about whether he has handled the charges against the two priests fully and completely after the procedures,” Hadland told news. – There are serious charges, but based on what I understand he has not neglected the charges. But there is talk that he may have handled these cases inadequate, says Hadland. Anne-Bente Hadland is a sister in the Catherine Home in Oslo. Now she is in Rome and has followed the pope election. – If we are to look at what he has done so far in his life, I would like to think that he has the qualities needed, she says of Pope Leo XIV. Photo: news The news editor says there have been new rules under Pope Francis of how bishops will handle such cases. – So I expect that Pope Leo’s handling of abuse cases in Peru will also be investigated according to these new rules, she says. Published 10.05.2025, at. 16.39
ttn-69
