VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
BishopAccountability.org [Waltham MA]
May 8, 2025
By Anne Barrett Doyle
We are concerned about the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as pope. His known record on abuse, with one exception, is troubling. He has been accused by victims in his former diocese in Peru of disregarding their allegations against two priests, and he has a history of resisting disclosure of abuse information to the public.
For the last two years, as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost oversaw cases filed under Vos estis against bishops accused of sexual abuse and of cover-up. He maintained the secrecy of that process, releasing no names and no data. Under his watch, no complicit bishop was stripped of his title.
As Superior General of the Augustinians and then bishop of the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru from 2015 to 2023, he released no names of abusers.
Most disturbing is an allegation from victims in his former diocese in Peru that he never opened a canonical case into alleged sexual abuse carried out by two priests.
Will Pope Leo XIV make fighting abuse and cover-up a top priority? In 2023, as the first month-long synod on the future of the church was coming to an end, Cardinal Prevost was asked if abuse was discussed. It wasn’t “central,” he said.
“The whole life of the church does not revolve around that specific issue, as important as it is,” he added.
Although American, Robert Prevost was never bishop of a U.S. diocese. He never was forced to adapt to the practices of “zero tolerance” and public disclosure that have made the U.S. church marginally safer than churches elsewhere. He has resisted disclosing information about abuse.
And yet, one case gives us reason to hope. Pedro Salinas, the survivor who blew the whistle on Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), the abusive Catholic cult in Peru, credits Prevost with playing “an extremely important role” in getting the cult suppressed. It was a stunning and extremely rare outcome. Yet punishing abusers isn’t heroic — it’s moral and decent. We pray we see more of this decisive action by Prevost when he is pope.
What’s next? Some might advise giving the new pontiff benefit of the doubt. We disagree. It is on Pope Leo XIV to win the trust of victims and their families.
In his first few weeks, he could demote and publicly denounce ten complicit bishops. He could start with Bishop Geraldo Alminaza of the Philippines, who in December secretly allowed two priests (1, 2) facing criminal charges of rape to resume ministry, and Bishop Enrique Díaz Díaz of Mexico, who did nothing to stop a priest who appears to have tortured and raped abandoned children in the homes the priest had set up for them.
He could also come clean about his own record. He must address the accusations by the victims in Chiclayo.
Children are being hurt by priests, and bishops are allowing it – that is the bottom line. Sexual crimes against children by priests remain at high levels worldwide, especially in developing countries, where bishops are free from external scrutiny. We have researched the abuse crisis not only in the U.S. and Europe, but also in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the Philippines, Bolivia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are stunned by what we find and sometimes encounter firsthand — the helplessness of victims and the cruel indifference of hierarchs. We call on Pope Leo XIV to make ending abuse central to his papacy.