VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
The Open Tabernacle
January 3, 2026
By Betty Clermont
(*The United Nations Committee Against Torture reviewed the Vatican and issued a report in 2014 stating clerical sexual abuse is a form of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.)
“We have to do something. We’re losing people,” Vatican officials will say. This is the assessment of Timothy D. Law, a Catholic advocate for survivors and accountability as published on goodmenproject.com on Nov. 23, 2025.
“The Italian-language Vatican Annuario Pontificio (Pontifical Yearbook) 2022 gave the number of Catholics in the world at the end of 2021 at 1.376 billion (the last time they published Catholic demographics). But the World Christian Database reported 1.272 billion Catholics as of 2024” stated James M. Thunder in the June 28, 2025, edition of newoxfordreview.org.
“Count me skeptical about the Vatican reports on the number of Catholics in the world,” wrote Thunder, an attorney who writes extensively about Catholic issues.
“With respect to the numbers from the Annuario Pontificio, the statistical data given in these yearbooks regarding archdioceses and dioceses are furnished by diocesan offices…How reliable is this method?” he questioned.
The Clerical Sexual Torture of Children Remains a Global Issue
“The Catholic Church has created a global catastrophe through its careful maintenance of a system that has allowed clergy to abuse children and vulnerable people around the world with impunity,” wrote Peter Isely, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Global Advocacy Chair in a Sept. 22, 2025, press release.
“Philippine priests accused of sex abuse remain in active ministry in the Catholic-majority country,” reported BishopAccountability.org, which tracks sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. “At least seven of the accused priests continue to serve in parishes across the archipelago, some as recently as last month,” the group’s co-director Anne Barrett Doyle stated in a press conference on Jan. 29, 2025.
“Philippine bishops have a ‘deep sense of entitlement’ in withholding information on the abuse of priests in their diocese. These are men who fear nothing,” Barrett Doyle noted as reported by reuters.com.
“The level of trust in the Catholic Church in Poland hit a record low with only one third of traditionally Catholic Poles trusting the Church,” reported the OSV News on Sept. 16, 2025. The total percentage of people who declare trust (‘strongly’ or ‘rather strongly’) in the Church fell from 58% in September 2016 to 35.1% in the same month in 2025…. Commentators blame the fall on the bishops -too engaged in politics, money and not taking care of the abuse crisis,” the report stated.
“Belgium’s Catholic Church has received 59 new reports of sexual abuse in the Church between July 2024 and June 2025 as participation in religious sacraments continues to decline,” brusselstimes.com reported on Oct. 29, 2025.
“In a case brought by a man who was abused as a little boy, the Catholic Church’s (Australian) Diocese of Ballarat argued that it couldn’t be sued for the actions of one of its priests, because priests are employed by God – not by the Church. The ruling by the High Court in the Church’s favour left thousands of survivors devastated,” reported the newdaily.com on Nov. 14, 2025.
“Nigerian Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama said the crisis of sexual abuse of minors has not only ‘undermined’ the work of the Church but also ‘wounded our credibility,’” reported aciafrica.org. on Nov. 18, 2025.
“Italian survivors group Rete L’Abuso (The Abuse Network), expressed incomprehension at Pope Leo XIV calling on the Italian Church to develop a ‘culture of prevention’ on clerical child sex abuse,” the AFP reported on Nov. 21, 2025. “Rete l’Abuso estimated that 1,106 priests had been accused of sexual abuse in Italy, with almost 4,400 known victims, dating back to 2000… Group founder Francesco Zanardi said many priests accused are just transferred to another diocese.
“Years on from the shocking Portuguese report that lifted the lid on decades of deviant behaviour by priests and officials of the Catholic Church, very little appears to have been done for the hundreds of victims,” reported portugalresident.com on Dec. 1, 2025. “Victims of sexual abuse accuse the Church of a lack of ‘transparency, responsibility, opacity, slowness, disrespect.’”
Pope Leo XIV Will Not Take Action
“Pope Leo’s first public interview since his election in May took place in July. Excerpts were published Sept. 14 and the full transcript released Sept. 18,” reported survivorsrights.com.
“In that interview, Pope Leo said victims (of clerical sexual torture) must be treated with ‘great respect’ while also insisting the rights of accused priests must be protected. He claimed more than 90 percent of accusations are made by authentic victims, but acknowledged there are ‘proven cases of some kind of false accusation’ and said there must also be due process for those accused.”
“The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) sharply criticized Pope Leo’s remarks and position. They argued his emphasis on false accusations and priests’ rights comes even as evidence shows that he has not adhered to canon law or abuse policies in places he previously led.”
“When Pope Leo says not to expect major reforms, it is a rejection of survivors. It’s an abandonment of children by the Church. The failure to stop abuse, to remove offenders from positions where they can continue committing sexual violence, is not just a moral failure it’s a death sentence. We’ve lost too many friends to suicide and despair.” SNAP Board President Shaun Dougherty stated.
Pope Leo Met with Members of Ending Clergy Abuse
Pope Leo met with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy for the first time on Oct. 20, reported Reuters. They are members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), a global coalition of survivors, human rights activists, legal experts and advocates – not members of the critical group, SNAP, the oldest (founded in 1988; the ECA in 2017) and largest (18,000 members nationally by 2021 reported on the SNAP website) group of survivors.
“The encounter, which included four victims and two advocates, lasted about an hour with ‘a significant moment of dialogue,’ they said…Gemma Hickey, a Canadian survivor who took part in the meeting, said Leo met with the victims in his office at the Vatican’s apostolic palace, took pictures with them, and listened carefully. ‘Pope Leo is very warm, he listened,’ said Hickey… ‘I left the meeting with hope,’ said Janet Aguti, a Ugandan survivor who was also at the meeting. It is a big step for us,’” quoted Reuters.
The ECA survivors “said the pope told them he was still coming to grips with the enormity of the Church’s scandals…I think he is still in a phase where he is trying to find out how to best address these issues,” said another attendee, Matthias Katsch.
If Leo had read SNAP’s September criticism, he wouldn’t “still be trying to find out how to best address these issues.”
“The Vatican has ignored every major international call for accountability, including from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee Against Torture, both in 2014. SNAP recalled that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made recommendations including major canon law reform, independent monitoring of children’s rights and Church hierarchy, transparent sharing of archives relating to sexual abuse, and immediate removal of abusers from ministry. The Holy See has not implemented these recommendations,” SNAP Global Advocacy Chair Peter Isely said.
“Survivors brought their evidence to the highest international bodies and those bodies affirmed what we’ve known for decades ‒ that the Catholic Church has perpetuated widespread sexual violence amounting to torture. When Pope Leo says not to expect any major reforms regarding Church doctrine related to sexuality, he is saying, ‘Let’s leave this system in place,’” Sarah Pearson, SNAP spokesperson stated.
“We wouldn’t have to keep focusing on this crisis if Pope Leo would just do the right thing. Enact a global zero tolerance law, release the criminal evidence in the Vatican archives, and stop spending millions on attorneys and lobbyists to fight every effort to pass laws that allow survivors to seek justice. Until these basic steps are taken, the pope’s continued failure to act will ensure that this crisis remains front and center, as it should,” SNAP Board President Shaun Dougherty said.
“ECA meeting participants said they also asked Leo to create a global zero-tolerance policy for priests accused of abuse, something survivors have pushed for. Timothy Law, an ECA co-founder, said he mentioned to Leo that the U.S. bishops have a zero tolerance law, which was enacted in 2002 after extensive reporting on abuse scandals in Boston. ‘Why can’t we make it universal?’ Law said he asked the pope.”
“On the day Pope Leo was elected, SNAP issued a public demand: ‘You can end the abuse crisis ‒ the only question is, will you?’ They say Pope Leo has now given his answer.’”
There will be no “global zero tolerance law” because:
“Pope Leo XIV has wielded his new papal authority to avoid testifying about his involvement in covering up child sex abuse in Peru…New evidence shows Pope Leo granted a dispensation to an accused Peruvian priest to end an internal investigation of his own conduct” SNAP stated after a press conference on Dec. 4, 2025.
“This evidence included internal Vatican documents, emails from Pope Leo, and recordings of meetings with Church officials discussing the cases of sexual abuse reported by Ana María Quispe Díaz and two other victims from the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru. Her full statement regarding the recent updates in her case can be found here.” noted SNAP.
“In a 2022 in-person meeting with (the then) Bishop Robert Prevost of Chiclayo, Ana María Quispe Díaz and two other victims reported that when they were between the ages of 9-14 years old, Fr. Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles (Fr. Lute) took off his clothes and, while making sexually inappropriate comments, touched his own genitals as well as the private areas of the victims on several separate occasions on mission trips to rural towns outside Chiclayo.”
“Despite assertions by Prevost that the accused priest ceased exercising public ministry, Facebook photos show that Fr. Lute continued public ministry during Prevost’s tenure as Bishop of Chiclayo,” SNAP stated.
“Fr. Giampiero Gambaro, OFM Cap., vice rector of the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae, called Ana María Quispe Díaz and the two other clergy abuse victims to a meeting at the Bishopric of Carabayllo in Lima on April 23, 2025.
“Fr. Giampiero, the delegate instructor appointed by the bishop of Chiclayo to carry out the administrative work in the canonical investigation into Fr. Lute, can be heard in newly released recordings of this meeting making several shocking claims. He affirmed that Fr. Lute had acknowledged the acts of abuse they reported, stating, ‘It may be that he considers it a sin. But he doesn’t consider it a crime.’” (Listen to audio with English transcription)
“Gambaro also presented an update on Fr. Lute’s status to the victims, characterizing it as ‘good news,’ stating that Fr. Lute had requested voluntary dispensation from the priesthood, citing the psychological exhaustion their accusations had caused him, framing Fr. Lute as a victim of the three women who reported he had abused them as young girls. Gambaro told the victims that this meant there would be no further investigation of the abuse.
“Gambaro framed Fr. Lute’s dispensation as a loss of ‘dignity’ and ‘rights,’ implying that this is a punishment for Lute though he has been granted an ‘honorary discharge’ from the priesthood with no trial, no finding of guilt, and no public record of his crimes.
Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected Pope on May 8. “Most significantly, the only person in the 1.4 billion member Catholic Church empowered to sign off on this dispensation, is the man who stands to lose the most by an investigation and trial: Pope Leo himself, who serves as both judge and interested party in a case that directly implicates his own oversight,” SNAP concluded.
Why Pope Leo and his men will not “end the abuse crisis.”
“On Jan. 31, 2014, the Committee for the Rights of the Child handed down its concluding observations in which it criticized the Holy See’s secrecy laws, its inadequate disciplinary system, the failure to mandate reporting of child sexual abuse to the civil authorities, and its failure to cooperate with independent inquiries,” ucanews.com noted on Dec. 9, 2025.
“In its response, the Holy See made a surprising assertion. It stated that its only obligation under the convention was to the 30 children living in the Vatican City (the children of the Swiss Guards and other staff). Within those 49 hectares, the Church decides whether any of its priests and religious, convicted of child sexual abuse by civil or canonical courts, will still have access to some of the 300 million children that attend its schools, churches, and religious activities.
“The Holy See said attempting to implement the convention in other countries ‘could constitute a violation of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states,’” ucanews.com wrote on Dec. 9, 2025.
“Non-interference in the internal affairs of states” reiterated the Vatican’s position of immunity for the popes and their men from all law save its own. In 1929, a bankrupt and debt-ridden Vatican and the Italian government signed the Lateran Treaty creating the Vatican City State as a sovereign entity over which the pope was given political autonomy.
So Pope Leo can do as he pleases – even if immoral or illegal – immune to any laws or judgments save his own.
Thus, the global Catholic Church will continue to lose members who are sickened and disgusted by the continuing sexual torture of children and the lack of compassion and solace for the survivors.
Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.