Pope says there should be no tolerance for abuse

Pope Leo XIV has said there should be no tolerance in the Catholic Church for any type of abuse — sexual, spiritual or of authority — and called for “transparent processes” to create a culture of prevention throughout the Church.

The pontiff made his first public comments on the clergy sex abuse scandal in a written message to a Peruvian journalist who documented a particularly egregious case of abuse and financial corruption in a Peru-based Catholic movement, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.

The message was read aloud on Friday night in Lima, during the presentation of a play based on the Sodalitium scandal and the work of journalist Paola Ugaz.

“It is urgent to establish throughout the Church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse — whether of power or authority, or of conscience, or spiritual or sexual,” Leo XIV said in his message. “This culture will only be authentic if it is born of active vigilance, transparent processes and sincere listening to those who have been hurt. For this, we need journalists.”

The pontiff is familiar with the Sodalitium scandal, having spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, where the group was founded in 1971. Then-Bishop Robert Prevost was responsible for listening to Sodalitium victims as the Peruvian bishops' spokesman for abuse victims and helped some reach financial settlements with the organization.

After Pope Francis brought him to the Vatican in 2023, Prevost helped dismantle the group entirely, overseeing the dismissal of a powerful Sodalitium bishop. The Sodalitium was officially suspended earlier this year, even before Francis’ death.

Now, as pope, Leo XIV must oversee the dismantling of the group and its active members. The Vatican’s envoy on the ground, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, read the pontiff’s message on Friday evening, appearing alongside Ugaz on stage.

In the message, the Pope also praised journalists for their courage in holding the powerful accountable, demanded that public authorities protect them and said that a free press is a “common good that cannot be renounced.”

Ugaz and a Sodalitium victim, Pedro Salinas, have faced years of criminal and civil litigation from Sodalitium and its supporters over their investigative reporting on the group’s corrupt practices and financial misconduct, and have praised the pontiff for his handling of the case.

The abuse scandal is one of the thorniest issues facing the current Pope, especially given the demands of survivors that the pontiff go even further than Francis in applying zero tolerance for abuse throughout the Church, including for abusers whose victims were adults.