Two Contrasting Cases Raise Questions of Pope Leo's Actions on Sex Abuse
The contrasts are glaring.
In one case, Pope Leo XIV — then known as Bishop Robert Prevost — sided with victims of sexual abuse, locking horns with powerful Catholic figures in Peru. He sought justice for victims of a cultlike Catholic movement that recruited the children of elite families and used sexual and psychological abuse to subordinate members.
In another case, Bishop Prevost was accused of failing to sufficiently investigate claims by three women that they had been abused by priests as children. The accused were two priests in Bishop Prevost's diocese in a small Peruvian city, including one who had worked closely with the bishop, according to two people who work for the church.
As Leo assumes the papacy, becoming leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, his handling of clergy sexual abuse will be closely scrutinized, and the two cases have left him open to starkly diverging judgments — praise for helping victims in one, claims that he let them down in the other.
In the first, victims have hailed as heroic his work taking on the ultraconservative group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which had grown more influential after Pope John Paul II gave it his pontifical stamp of approval.
Breaking with other powerful Catholic figures in Peru, Bishop Prevost arranged talks between victims and church leaders and helped those who suffered abuse to get psychological help and monetary settlements. As he rose through the Vatican's ranks, Bishop Prevost kept raising the pressure on Sodalitium, which was ordered to disband only weeks before -he became the first American to lead the Catholic Church.
Colombia
Ecuador
Chiclayo
Brazil
Peru
Pacific
Ocean
Lima
Bolivia
200 miles
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