Pope Leo XIV will meet with abuse victims during his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, from November 6 to 17. The announcement was made on Tuesday, October 27 by the Holy See Press Office, which stated in a communiqué that “some meetings with people who have been victims of abuse by members of the clergy and the Church” are planned. The announcement comes one day after thirty-three victims and survivors of the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana publicly asked the Pope to receive them in Peru, as the trip’s schedule did not include any time for them.
According to the text released by the Holy See, the meetings “respond to the Pope’s desire to express his closeness to those who have suffered and continue to suffer this violence” and to build with them paths of healing accessible to anyone who needs them. The communiqué adds, according to the Italian agency SIR, that the purpose is to ensure the Church is a safe and spiritually healthy place. The Holy See has not specified how many meetings there will be, in which cities, or how they will be held, according to EWTN News. The portal Religión Digital claims that in Lima the Pope will meet with victims of the Sodalicio, but that detail does not appear in the excerpts of the communiqué published by the Holy See and the agencies.
The letter from the Sodalicio survivors, dated in Lima on Monday, October 26, was sent by email to several Vatican authorities, including the Pope’s personal secretary, the Peruvian priest Edgard Rimaycuna, according to Infobae. Its signatories lamented that “no space has been planned for a meeting between victims and survivors of ecclesial abuse”, according to the text reported by the Peruvian newspaper La República, and warned that the suppression of the society, decreed by Francis in January 2025, has not yet translated into concrete results. They also denounced that remnants of the Sodalicio continue to operate in the same premises and with the same leaders, and that reparations have fallen into silence.
This will not be the first time Pope Leo XIV meets with victims during a trip. In Spain, on June 8, he received a group from the Proyecto Repara of the archdiocese at the nunciature in Madrid, in a meeting that was not announced in advance and was made public afterward. In France, on September 27, he met for nearly two hours in Lourdes with seven victims, five of whom later appeared before the press to ask the Pope for concrete measures. As in Lourdes, and unlike Madrid, this time the Holy See announced the meeting in advance. In the Vatican, the Pope has also received members of the board of the organization Ending Clergy Abuse, fifteen survivors from Belgium, and the Irishman David Ryan, according to Vatican News.
On the flight back from Metz to Rome, at the end of his trip to France, Pope Leo XIV told journalists that “sexual abuse is, above all, a human problem”, according to the quote reported by Vatican News.
The trip to Peru holds particular significance for the Pope. Robert Prevost was a missionary in the country and bishop of Chiclayo, and he also holds Peruvian nationality; the signatories of the letter thanked him, in fact, for his role in the suppression of the society founded by Luis Fernando Figari. The Holy See confirmed on Monday, October 26 that the trip remains fully on schedule after the latest medical checks ruled out any contraindications following his lung surgery.
One day after the Sodalicio victims asked to be received, the Holy See announces meetings with victims, but leaves unclear whom the Pope will see, where, and when.
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