VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Crux [Denver CO]
April 30, 2025
By Elise Ann Allen
Survivors of clerical abuse, experts in child protection and victim advocacy groups have collectively decried the presence of a Peruvian cardinal accused of and punished for abusing a minor during pre-conclave meetings.
The cardinal in question, Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, 81, has faced two allegations of sexually abusing minors, including a 2018 complaint to the Vatican that he’d sexually assaulted a teenage boy in confession that resulted in restrictions on his ministry by Pope Francis in 2019.
These restrictions, confirmed in January by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, include apparently being barred from wearing his red cardinal robes and insignia, from returning to Peru without permission, from making public declarations, and from participating in a future conclave while he was still of age to do so.
Cipriani has repeatedly disobeyed each of these restrictions in recent months and was most recently seen paying respects to Pope Francis April 24 while the pontiff was lying in state, and at an April 27 Vespers service for the pope in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he is buried, in his red cardinal robes.
He has also been seen leaving the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, where pre-conclave general congregation meetings are taking place, with the gaggle of other cardinals present.
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Speaking to Crux, Chilean clerical abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, called Cipriani’s presence at pre-conclave meetings “profoundly troubling.”
“While canon law prevents him from voting due to his age,” as Cipriani is over 80 and is therefore ineligible to vote in the conclave, “his mere presence in these critical deliberations is a scandal and a deep offense to survivors and the faithful,” Cruz said.
He said Cipriani’s track record on abuse includes “enabling abusive environments” and openly attacking survivors.
“His defiance of Pope Francis’s sanctions further underscores his disregard for accountability and Church discipline. Allowing him any form of participation, even consultative, undermines the Church’s commitment to safeguarding, justice, and transparency,” he said.
If the Catholic Church is serious about ensuring its moral credibility, on the abuse issue and beyond, Cipriani should not only be sanctioned, but “effectively barred from any form of influence or visibility.”
“Accountability must mean more than gestures; it must be real, decisive, and consistent, especially in moments as critical as the preparation for a new Conclave,” Cruz said, saying, “The faithful and survivors deserve far better than seeing compromised figures like Cipriani still given a voice in shaping the Church’s future.”
Similarly, Matthias Katsch, a survivor and activist with German survivors’ association Eckiger Tisch and a founder and board member of Ending Clergy Abuse, called Cipriani’s presence at the general congregations “outrageous.”
“It is outrageous that the abuser Cipriani is allowed to participate in the pre-conclave as if nothing had happened,” he said, saying the situation illustrates the church’s need for “clear, transparent, global procedures and rules in the future for dealing with abuse clergy and those who cover up abuse.”
“Zero tolerance is an empty slogan as long as this rule of zero tolerance is enshrined in canon law,” he said.
In an April 29 statement, Ending Clergy Abuse voiced “deep regret” that Cipriani “is participating in the meetings prior to the conclave, despite the restrictions imposed on him.”
They noted that the restrictions imposed by Pope Francis, which Cipriani continues to disobey, included a ban on him wearing cardinal symbols, making public statements, or participating in the conclave, “as the official Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni, stated.”
“Is this the message the Catholic Church intends to convey, especially to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, just days before electing the new leader of Catholicism? Have they learned nothing?” they said.
Sarah Pearson, a survivor and member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), during an April 30 press conference in Rome condemned Cipriani’s participation in general congregations, saying, “To see him and his presence at this meeting where sexual abuse is being discussed, this man has no place there.”
“It’s wildly inappropriate and it’s an example of what happens…when nothing is done,” she said, noting that the Vatican has excused his presence and participation as a condition of the constitution governing conclave rules, Universi Dominici Gregis, summoning all cardinals without personal impediments such as health.
The Vatican, Pearson said, has implied that Cipriani can participate because “he has this rank and this title; well, he shouldn’t be in these meetings because he shouldn’t have that rank and that title.”
In comments to Argentinian newspaper La Nacion, child protection expert Jesuit Father Hans Zollner said, “if there are sanctions against Cipriani the cardinals must intervene.”
“I don’t know the sanctions, but if they exist and he is disobeying them, I insist, the cardinals must intervene, because it means there is a problem with the application of the sanctions and the credibility of the sanctions,” he said.
A former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and head of the Institute of Anthropology for Human Dignity and Care, and who in 2019 played a key role in Pope Francis’s child-protection summit at the Vatican, stressed the importance for the next pope to take the abuse scandals seriously.
“It is necessary that the papal candidates be very clear about how they’ve acted regarding abuse in the past and how they will act in the future, because this is an important issue for the pontificate, regardless of who is pope,” he said.
He praised Pope Francis for organizing the 2019 summit to address abuse as a systemic institutional problem, and for issuing several new laws targeting both abuse and coverup, even if the application of those norms has been a mixed bag.
The church, Zollner said, “must continue along the same path and must see how to verify that things are really changing. If we truly want something to change regarding abuse, we need to achieve a different sensitivity.”
In an April 29 statement, the Survivors Network of Peru expressed its rejection of Cipriani’s presence in the general congregations, saying that by attending, he “once again disobeyed the penal precept imposed on him by Pope Francis.”
“By attending general congregations or preparatory meetings for the conclave, Cipriani and the cardinals who do so revictimize the victim who made the complaint, which is unforgivable,” the organization said.
If the Catholic Church is serious about its commitment to zero tolerance for sexual abuse against minors, “this sends a worrying message that undermines confidence in the criteria for selecting the next pontiff,” it said.
“We hope that the College of Cardinals makes an immediate decision and demonstrates what all victims and survivors of ecclesial violence hope for the future of the church,” they said.
The Vatican has so far been largely silent on the matter, with Bruni repeatedly referring to Universi Dominici Gregis as stating that all cardinals without personal impediments such as health are summoned to participate.
Despite being asked about Cipriani’s status repeatedly during daily briefings, Bruni said Wednesday, “the case is known, Universi Dominici Gregis also. If there have been no choices on this matter, you can draw your own conclusions.”