Pope Leo XIV spent almost three hours on Saturday with 15 victims of sexual abuse by Belgian clergy.
The Holy See’s press office said the meeting between the pope and the survivors was “profound and painful.” Each of the survivors suffered abuse at the hands of priests when they were minors. The office said the meeting took place in a “spirit of intimacy, listening and dialogue.”
The Catholic Church in Belgium has been rocked by a series of devastating clergy abuse scandals in recent years, but Pope Francis confronted the scandals directly during a visit to Belgium last year, spending more than two hours with survivors.
During that visit, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo at the time urged Francis to take concrete action in unusually frank terms.
Horrifying revelations of sexual abuse by clergy in Belgium over the past 30 years include the case of a former bishop who abused two of his nephews. The length of time Leo met with survivors (about three hours is a long time for a papal meeting) reflects the scale of the crisis.
Since being elected six months ago, America’s first pope has called on the church to establish a culture that does not tolerate abuse “in any form” and held his first meeting with survivors at the Vatican last month.
The meeting came days after a Vatican commission report said Catholic leaders needed to do more to help survivors. Leo has personal experience dealing with allegations of clergy abuse. While serving as bishop in Peru, he faced one of the most serious and widespread scandals in the Latin American church.
