Pope Leo XIV spent nearly three hours on Saturday meeting with 15 Belgian victims of clerical sexual abuse.
The Holy See Press Office described the encounter with the survivors, all of whom suffered abuse as minors at the hands of clergy, as “profound and painful.” According to the office, the session unfolded “in a spirit of closeness, listening & dialogue.”
The Belgian Catholic Church has faced a series of shocking clerical abuse scandals in recent years, a crisis Pope Francis addressed directly during his visit to Belgium last year, when he spent over two hours with survivors.
During that visit, then-Prime Minister Alexander de Croo urged Francis, in unusually candid terms, to take concrete action.
The disturbing revelations of clerical sexual abuse in Belgium over the past three decades include a former bishop who abused two of his nephews.
The extraordinary duration of Leo’s meeting – nearly three hours, which is unusually long for a papal audience, underscores the gravity of the situation.
Since his election six months ago, the first American pope has called for the church to create a culture that rejects abuse “in any form,” and last month held his first meeting with survivors in the Vatican.
That gathering occurred just days after a Vatican commission report stated that Catholic leaders must do more to assist survivors.
Leo also brings personal experience with clerical abuse cases: during his tenure as a bishop in Peru, he confronted one of Latin America’s most extensive and serious church scandals.
