Pope Leo XIV on Monday told Spain's Catholic hierarchy to provide reparations to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and deal with the crisis transparently, ahead of an expected meeting with survivors during his weeklong visit to the country.
Leo told Spanish bishops the entire church community should have an 'ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.' The Spanish hierarchy had largely dismissed the scale of abuse in their church for decades until a newspaper began documenting a legacy of abuse and cover-up.
'Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice and reparation,' Leo said. 'Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing.'
Amid public outrage, Spain launched a reparations system earlier this year for clerical abuse cases too old to be prosecuted, requiring participation from the Catholic Church and the Spanish government. The system, which is not legally binding, gives the government a strong role and final say in payouts.
Ahead of the expected meeting with Leo, several groups representing survivors said they were left in the dark about the encounter and held a small protest outside the Vatican's embassy in Madrid. Juan Cuatrecasas, a spokesperson for the Robbed Childhood association, said: 'Our associations are pleased that a group of victims from the reparation plan can be heard by the pope, but they do not represent all the victims, and deep down they are being used by the church... to clean up the image of a Spanish church that has never been able to live up to its victims.'
Leo also reaffirmed the right of the Catholic Church to maintain secrecy involving the sacrament of confession, framing it as a matter of freedom of religion. Some former members of Opus Dei, unable to secure a meeting with Leo, had sought to speak to him about psychological and other abuses they say they suffered in the movement.
