At InfoVaticana, we have been very clear—and very critical—with the episode of Robert Prevost as bishop of Chiclayo. His handling of the Lute case in Chiclayo seemed to us like a manual of what not to do: looking the other way, mixing civil and canonical prescription, and ending up conveying to the victims that the Church had neither the means nor the will to investigate. And we keep saying it: that was a blatant negligence. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s what it was.
But today, Leo XIV has a golden opportunity before him. The alleged pedophile Eleuterio Vásquez, alias Lute, has requested dispensation from the clerical state as if asking for a safe-conduct to escape the trial. If the Pope grants that grace, the case will close falsely: without sentence, without truth, without reparation. A masterstroke for the abuser and a mortal blow to the Church’s credibility.
The alternative is simple and luminous: deny the dispensation and order all the investigative proceedings that were not done at the time, as required by a canonical process with all guarantees. It’s not about revenge, it’s about justice. A serious trial, with testimonies recorded in the official minutes, with transparency towards the victims and with the clarity that Canon Law demands.
This is where Leo XIV can demonstrate whether his pontificate will be another chapter in institutional cover-up, or the beginning of a true purification. Because accepting Lute’s trap would amount to saying that in the Church it’s enough to request discharge to escape all responsibility. And that would be devastating, not only for the victims, but for the entire People of God.
No one is asking the Pope for impossible miracles: only that he fulfill what he has said so many times in public, that victims must be listened to and believed.
The dilemma is clear: either Leo opens the back door to the pedophile Lute, or he becomes the Pope who had the courage to judge him.