Will Pope Leo end the clergy sexual abuse crisis?

Boston Globe

08-05-2025

In other words, as bad as things may be in the United States, they are worse elsewhere in the world.
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For example, the US Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy, requiring the permanent removal of priests proven guilty of child sex abuse. Meanwhile, 'universal Catholic Church law still lets bishops reinstate proven and admitted child molesters to parish posts and other ministries,' she noted. In addition, four-fifths of the 178 US bishops publish the names of credibly accused clergy. 'None provide sufficient detail, and all are incomplete — and yet we've seen nothing close to this level of disclosure by bishops anywhere else in the world,' she wrote.
How much the experiences of the US Catholic Church will influence the new pope in dealing with clergy sexual abuse is, of course, unknown.
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Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo — was never a bishop of a US diocese, Barrett Doyle noted, so while he would know about the policies of 'zero tolerance' and public disclosure, he was not subject to them.
On a positive note, however, one victim of an abusive Catholic cult in Peru said he was responsive and helped get the cult dissolved. 'It was a stunning and extremely rare outcome,' Barrett Doyle said.
Not long after white smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Thursday, signaling that a pope had been chosen, SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests —
According to SNAP, as provincial of the Augustinians in Chicago, he allowed Father James Ray, a priest then accused of abusing minors whose ministry had been restricted since 1991, to reside at the Augustinians' St. John Stone Friary in Chicago in 2000, 'despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school.' When he was bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, three alleged victims reported to civil authorities that there was no movement on their canonical cases, and these alleged victims have since claimed that he failed to open an investigation and sent inadequate information to Rome. Because of that, SNAP filed a complaint against him on March 25, 2025.
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SNAP is now calling for decisive action from the new pope in his first 100 days, including a universal zero-tolerance law and a Global Survivors Council with the authority to oversee and enforce compliance.
As SNAP put it to the new pope: 'You can end the abuse crisis — the only question is, will you?'
For survivors, their advocates, and everyone who wants the church to finally do the right thing — faint hope is better than no hope.
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at