Vatican – barely elected, its past resurfaces. In a statement published Thursday, May 8, in the wake of the appointment of pope Leo XIV, several NGOs for the defense of victims of sexual assault by members of the clergy criticize him for his management of sexist and sexual violence affairs.
The survivor press release Network of Those Abused by Priest (SNAP) and Bishop Accountability calls into question the commitment of Robert Francis Prevost, a 69 -year -old American prelate and now Pope Leo XIV, to lift the veil on the scourge of sexist and sexual violence.
The new Pope Leo XIV is American but he also has French origins
As head of the Order of Augustins around the world, then as a bishop of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo between 2015 and 2023, “He did not publish any name” of culprits, denounced Anne Barrett Doyle, in the name of Bishop Accountability. It was the same during the two years when he directed the powerful Dicastère (ministry) of the bishops, a key department of the Vatican who advised Pope Francis on the appointments of bishops, she accused.
Robert Francis “Prevost supervised the educated files (…) against bishops accused of sexual assault and concealment. He maintained the secret on these procedures, not revealing any names or information ”still castigated Anne Barrett Doyle. “Under his direction, no accomplice bishop was fallen from his title. The most disturbing is the allegation of victims in his former diocese in Peru according to which he has never opened canonical investigation on alleged sexual assault committed by two priests ”she hammered.
No investigation opening
The Snap, which defends victims of pedocriminal religious, also evokes the time when Robert Francis Prevost was bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when three alleged victims had confided in the diocese. But without result. They then turned to the civil authorities in 2022. “The victims have since said that (Robert Francis) PREVOST had not opened an investigation, that he had sent inadequate information to Rome and that the diocese had allowed the priest to continue to say mass ”according to the SNAP.
But the successor of the new pope at the head of the bishopric of Chiclayo, Edison Farfan, denounced a “Polemic” aimed at “Discrediting the cardinal”. “He listened, he respected the procedures”he said before the press. “It was verified, confirmed, corroborated and proven [que ces accusations] had no foundation in reality ”, Also said investigative journalist Pedro Salinas.
His management of another more distant case is criticized for him. As provincial manager of Augustins in the Chicago region, the future Pope would have enabled a priest sentenced to miners to live in an Augustinian convent near a city school in 2000.
-Bishop accountability, however, has also recognized some positive actions of the one who has become Leon XIV, in particular the denunciation of aggressions and corruption within Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV also called Solidaco), a secular congregation ultra -conservative in Peru dissolved by François this year.
“Extremely important role”
Pedro Salinas – also a victim and author of a report on this group – considers that Robert Francis Prevost is one of the five bishops who played a “Extremely important role (…) on behalf of the victims”.
The president of the Conference of Bishops of Peru, Carlos Garcia Camader, also defended the record of the new Pope on Thursday. As a bishop between 2014 and 2023, he “Open the way here in Peru to listen to the victims and to the establishment of a truth commission” In the SCV scandal, he assured.
The first accusations of violence emerged in the early 2000s, but the case exploded in 2015 with a book citing victims detailing “Physical, psychological and sexual violence” Combined by the leaders of the movement and its founder, according to Vatican News, the official Vatican information website. After a seven -year investigation, Pope Francis dissolved SCV a few weeks before his death. About 36 people, including 19 minors, suffered violence, according to Vatican News.
In January, Robert Francis Prevost participated with Pope Francis in a meeting with Jose Enrique Escardo, one of the first victims to denounce the actions of the religious movement. “We reject concealment and secret, that hurts a lot, because we have to help people who have suffered because of reprehensible acts”said the future pope in the Peruvian daily The Republic In an interview in June 2019.
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