The Pope met in Madrid today with six victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Spanish clergy, promising them “new efforts” to ensure the Church becomes “truly a safe place,” the Vatican announced.
According to a statement from the Holy See, the meeting between Leo XIV and the six victims of abuse by members of the clergy and the Church in Spain lasted nearly an hour. Based on their personal experiences, each participant presented the Pope with proposals to make the Church’s response to such dramatic cases more effective.
Leo XIV assured these six individuals of his commitment to ensuring that the proposals he heard will serve as the foundation for new efforts, allowing the Church to truly be a safe and spiritually sound place where wounds find comfort and healing.
The Pope has been visiting Spain since Saturday and has referred to the problem of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church multiple times since arriving in Madrid. Sexual abuse in the Church remains an open wound, Leo XIV told journalists traveling with him on the plane from Rome.
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The Pope emphasized that he has personally worked to establish commissions and create regulations, vowing to continue doing so alongside the entire Church because the wound remains open. During the morning, he argued that the Catholic Church must respond with justice and reparation for the victims, emphasizing that more work, prevention, and a culture of care are needed.
Leo XIV spoke in Madrid at the headquarters of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, telling bishops that one of the most painful meetings on his itinerary was with the victims.
Faced with this plague, the ecclesiastical community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, and reparation, as well as an increasingly firm commitment to prevention and a culture of care, Leo XIV told the Spanish bishops.
On Sunday, associations representing victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Spain lamented the exclusion of several groups from meetings with the Pope during his visit. Survivors of sexual abuse in the Church are calling on Pope Leo XIV for a truly inclusive listening process, eight associations stated.
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The associations highlighted a lack of representation and plurality in the planned meetings with the Pope, warning that the public might mistakenly interpret that all victims feel satisfied with these events. However, multiple sensitivities and numerous groups were not taken into account, they noted.
Excluding representative associations and survivors who have worked for years for truth, justice, and reparation only increases the feeling of abandonment, the statement read.
The Government of Spain and the Catholic Church, through the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), announced an agreement on January 8 for the reparation of hundreds of sexual abuse victims whose cases can no longer receive a judicial response.
Under this agreement, the Church will assume responsibility for this reparation, which involves economic compensation or other types of symbolic reparations for victims of sexual crimes analyzed through an Ombudsman structure. The associations that released the statement on Sunday stressed that they also worked with the Ombudsman in recent years, but not all victims are recognized in or support the agreement signed between the Government and the Church.
