Leo XIV meets six abuse victims in Peru
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on L’essentiel
Pope Leo XIV met six victims of abuse within the Church in Peru in Lima on Thursday. The meeting focused on listening to victims, seeking the truth, healing and reparation, according to the Vatican.
Pope Leo XIV spoke for more than an hour on Thursday in Lima with six victims of abuse within the Church in Peru. He listened to their accounts and discussed with them ways to promote truth, healing and safe environments, according to the Vatican.
Earlier in the day, Leo XIV called on Peruvian bishops to respond to abuse with “truth, justice, forgiveness, reparation” and to strengthen prevention. Some of those received were linked to Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, an ultraconservative Catholic organisation dissolved by Pope Francis in 2025, which acknowledged sexual assaults against 19 minors and 10 adults between 1975 and 2002, according to the Holy See.
In May 2026, the Vatican opened a listening facility in Lima to collect testimonies from victims of Sodalicio and determine compensation, financed by assets seized from the organisation. The meeting comes after the pope underwent an operation for lung cancer on 14 October 2026.
