CHICAGO (IL)
SNAP - Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [Chicago IL]
August 18, 2025
Pope Leo Remains Silent Regarding Growing Evidence Linking Him to Peru Cover-Up
This weekend marked Pope Leo XIV’s first 100 days as head of the Catholic Church, and despite promises of full enforcement of zero tolerance for clerical abuse and cover-up, he has failed remove known offenders from ministry or enact any of the urgent proposals presented to him by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in an exhortation issued on the day of his election.
“On the day of his election, we warned the world that the next pope would almost certainly be implicated in covering up sexual crimes against children,” said Peter Isely, chair of SNAP’s Global Advocacy. “We offered Pope Leo a roadmap for accountability. One hundred days later, known abusers are permitted to remain in ministry, while cover-up and complicity are rewarded with promotion.”
Although Pope Leo voiced support for “a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse,” his actions have told another story. In just three months, despite widespread public exposure, he has allowed two convicted clerics to serve in high-level positions at the Vatican and a French archdiocese.
Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, a former Vatican diplomat convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography while serving at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., still holds a post in the Vatican Secretariat of State. There have been no repercussions for Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse, who called it an “act of mercy” when he recently appointed Fr. Dominic Spina, convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student in 2006, to serve as a diocesan chancellor. Though Archbishop de Kerimel reversed his decision Saturday after two months of sustained public pressure, de Kerimel called his decision a “sign of hope for the perpetrators of abuse” in his explanation of his actions. Spina remains a priest.
At the end of July, SNAP held a press conference in Chicago with Ana María Quispe Díaz, a young woman from Peru in whose case then Bishop Prevost appears to have flagrantly violated canon law as well as the Episcopal Conference of Peru’s abuse policy. SNAP has fiercely advocated for accountability in Quispe and the other victims’ cases, delivering a formal complaint against Prevost to Cardinal Pietro Parolin a month before Pope Francis’ death.
Correspondence presented by Quispe shows that, just weeks before the conclave, one of the accused priests, Fr. Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles (Fr. Lute), appears to have been quietly allowed to request voluntary dispensation, three years after the victim’s initial report to the pope. A July 1 letter to victims from the Diocese of Chiclayo claimed it would take around six to seven months to complete Lute’s removal from ministry, as offices in Rome “tend to close for a couple of weeks in August.”
Pope Leo also failed to initiate any investigation into Fr. Ricardo Yesquén Paiva, also directly reported to him by Quispe in a 2020 phone call.
VIEW CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN VICTIMS AND THE DIOCESE OF CHICLAYO
In SNAP’s May 8th letter to Pope Leo, survivors called for an overhaul of the Vatican’s management of abuse cases, including:
- A Global Truth Commission – independent, with full Vatican cooperation, to hold regional hearings, document abuse and cover-up, and require the opening of all Vatican archives on abuse.
- A Universal Zero Tolerance Law – enacted into canon law, requiring the permanent removal of all abusers and complicit officials from ministry.
- Binding International Agreements – full participation in treaties and concordats that mandate transparency, mandatory reporting to civil authorities, and cooperation with criminal prosecutions.
- A Reparations Fund – supported by church assets to provide just restitution for survivors, including therapy, financial compensation, education, and housing.
- A Global Survivors Council – with the authority to monitor compliance, requiring the cooperation of the Holy See, bishops’ conferences, and international legal bodies.
“It is entirely insufficient to allow Fr. Lute to quietly take voluntary retirement without accountability,” said SNAP spokesperson, Sarah Pearson. “True justice can only come with a full and transparent examination of the files of the Diocese of Chiclayo and the Vatican regarding all allegations against Lute and Fr. Yesquén, and of the response by Pope Leo and other Catholic leaders. This must happen not only in this case, but in every case still pending today. Only when this is paired with a change in Vatican policy, like a universal zero tolerance law that transforms the Vatican’s response to abuse, will survivors finally see justice served.”
CONTACT:
Peter Isely, SNAP Global Policy Working Group (+1 414 429 7259, peterisely@gmail.com), Sarah Pearson, SNAP Media and Communications (+1 414 366 5403, sarah@natesmission.org), Angela Walker, SNAP Executive Director (+1 202 940 5738, awalker@snapnetwork.org)