Sex abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic church for years, with priests around the world accused of victimizing children and others, and the institution criticized for a weak response.
As Pope Leo XIV becomes leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, his stance on abuse will play a central role in shaping the church’s future as it tries to rebuild trust.
To better understand the direction he might take, a team of New York Times reporters examined Leo’s handling of two sex abuse cases in Peru, while he was bishop in the small city of Chiclayo, from 2015 to 2023.
We found stark contrasts. In one case, Pope Leo — then called Bishop Robert Prevost — sided assertively with victims of sexual abuse. He clashed with powerful Catholic figures to seek justice for victims of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a cultlike Catholic movement that recruited children of elite families and used sexual and psychological abuse to control members.
In the other case, the pope is accused by victims and advocates of failing to adequately investigate claims by three women that they had been abused by priests as children.
The Times investigation found that while the pope was a bishop, at least two priests accused of abusing minors continued clergy work — sometimes with children — while under investigation. The reporting also found that a priest appointed by Bishop Prevost to counsel victims told them not to expect much accountability from the church because their abuse had not “reached a situation of rape.”
The findings raise questions about how much oversight the future pope put in place to ensure accountability and protect victims from potential abusers.
What do we know about the first case?
For years, abuse claims had plagued Sodalitium, an ultraconservative Catholic movement founded in Peru in 1971 by a layman, Luis Fernando Figari, that eventually received approval from the Vatican. But senior clergy in Peru largely turned a blind eye to the accusations against Sodalitium.
A 2015 book, “Half Monks, Half Soldiers,” revealed a culture of sexual, psychological and physical abuse within Sodalitium. A subsequent independent investigation showed how Mr. Figari’s methods included using a spiked whip to punish members, making his dog bite them and making them wear a belt that caused electric shocks.
Bishop Prevost emerged as one of the few senior Catholic figures in Peru who sided with the victims. He helped some to get mental health counseling and financial settlements and turned up the pressure on Sodalitium.
In interviews, Sodalitium’s victims praised his handling of their cases and argued that Bishop Prevost’s involvement unleashed unsubstantiated attacks against him over the abuse cases in Chiclayo from people sympathetic to Sodalitium.
Dozens of victims ended up coming forward, and the once powerful movement was forced to pay millions of dollars in settlements. Only weeks before Leo was selected as pope, the Vatican ordered Sodalitium to disband.
What about the Chiclayo case?
Three women in Chiclayo said that after they approached Bishop Prevost in 2022 they received very different treatment.
Speaking to Peruvian news outlets, they have said that, they told Bishop Prevost that they had been abused by two priests in the diocese as children. One, the Rev. Eleuterio Vásquez, had taken two of the girls to a mountain retreat, where he had gotten into bed with them and began touching and rubbing them.
One of the women, Ana María Quispe, now 29, has spoken out extensively on social media, saying on TikTok that Bishop Prevost told the women he believed them and encouraged them to report the abuse to civil authorities, which they did.
But then, Ms. Quispe said, not much seemed to happen. Civil authorities closed the case quickly, saying the claims went back so many years they were beyond the statute of limitation. The Vatican closed its own investigation in August 2023, citing the decision by civil authorities and a lack of evidence.
The women have accused church leaders of failing to deliver justice or accountability, laying part of the blame on Bishop Prevost
The diocese claimed that Father Vásquez had been “prohibited” from celebrating Mass amid an investigation.
But social media posts reviewed by The Times showed Father Vásquez continuing to participate publicly in Mass at least three times during inquiry.
He was even photographed jointly celebrating Mass with the future pope.
A spokesman for the Vatican, Matteo Bruni, said Bishop Prevost’s investigation went “beyond the requisites” and included receiving a written report from the women and searching archives for other accusations.
He said that the church allowed Father Vásquez to publicly celebrate Mass only once during the investigation. If the priest did so at other times, he added, it was “unknown to the bishop.”
In a second case uncovered by The Times, another priest in Chiclayo accused of sexually abusing a minor was barred from working as a priest in his parish in 2019. But more than a dozen Facebook posts identified by The Times, many of them from the period when Bishop Prevost led the diocese, showed the priest continuing to do clergy work for years — often with children.
Mitch Smith contributed reporting from Chicago, and Arijeta Lajka from New York.
Julie Turkewitz is the Andes Bureau Chief for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia, covering Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
Simon Romero is a Times correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is based in Mexico City.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
The post Takeaways From a Times Investigation of the Pope’s Legacy on Sex Abuse appeared first on New York Times.
