Pope Leo XIV accuses the victim group in Chicago and Peru

Pope Leo XIV accuses the victim group in Chicago and Peru

Six weeks before the American Cardinal Robert Prevost was appointed Pope Leo XIV. href = "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/67f0512667a0f3091d2/t/67f4da168e3f2740e0f5dca8/174409864179/Prevost_velm+Complaint_3.25.pdf" target = "_ blank"> complaint against him and other church leaders with the State Secretary of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro parolin.

allegations against Cardinal Prevost

The complaint claims that Prevost "caused damage to vulnerable and conjured up a scandal" by incorrectly dealt with two situations - in Chicago in 2000 and in Peru in 2022 - in connection with priests that were accused of sexual abuse.

As Prevost as Provincial Ober of the Augustiner in Chicago in 2000, Prevost only allowed a block from St. Thomas The Apostle Elementary School in the Augustinian community in the Augustinian community in St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park. The priest, Father James Ray, had been excluded from the exercise of the community service and the handling of minors since 1991 - which the Archdiocese of Chicago had confirmed when she asked Prevost to accommodate Ray in the monastery.

"The school was never notified," said Snap spokeswoman Sarah Pearson. In 2002, after the Catholic Bishops' US conference tightened its guidelines, Ray was relocated from the monastery and excluded from public pastoral care. In 2012 he was released by the priesthood.

Criticism of the decisions of the Archdiocese of Chicago

Patrick Thronson, a lawyer who represented a plaintiff in an abuse against Ray and the Archdiocese of Chicago, said shocked that Ray was allowed to live so close to school. At the same time, he admitted that he was not aware of the details of Prevost's participation in decision -making.

"There are extensive documentation that show that the archdiocese was informed at the latest in the 1980s about numerous reports on severe, devastating sexual crimes that Ray committed to children," said Thronson. "In view of the fact that Ray was removed from the active service due to serious allegations of abuse in the early 1990s, it would be surprising if the leadership team of the Augustiner had not been informed about his past."

The Archdiocese of Chicago agreed in 2022 in this case that a little more than a year after the lawsuit submitted, said Thonson. The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a comment from CNN.

The allegations from Peru

In the 1980s and 1990s, Prevost worked as a pastor and diocesan official in Peru. In 2015 he returned there when Pope Francis appointed him as a bishop for the diocese of Chiclayo in Northwest-Peru. In April 2022, three women submitted a complaint against Prevost, in which they accused two priests of sexually abused from 2007, reported the Catholic Investigative Journalism project The Pillar.

In December 2022, women submitted civil complaints by providing that the diocese did not respond to its allegations or informed the civilian authorities. The public prosecutor concluded the case a month later and explained that the limitation period had expired, as can be seen from the SNAP complaint.

effects and examinations

The diocese rejected the allegations of women and said that Prevost personally met with them during their first interview. The diocese stated that a priest was suspended after the complaint and that the other was no longer on duty due to his age and state of health. She added that the complaint was forwarded to higher places in Rome, to the Dicasterium for theory of faith. But the Dicasterium closed the case in August 2023 after the diocese informed about the dismissal of the civil law procedure.

The complaint of Snap dated March 25 claims that Prevost as Bishop failed to initiate an investigation, to properly inform civilian prosecutors or to restrict the priests involved.

The women would also have stated that the church investigators had never spoken to them, Pearsons from Snap told CNN. "The fact that they say that they were not even interviewed is extremely worrying for us."

The successor of Prevosts as Bishop of Chiclayo, Guillermo Cornejo, reopened the case in December 2023 and asked for a new investigation after one of the three women had publicly reported on their allegations, as first of The Pillar last year reported.

Public opinion of Prevosts

During his time as Bishop of Chiclayo, Prevost expressed 2019 in the Peruvian National Newspaper la republica Reject abuse. "They cause a lot of damage because we have to help people who have suffered from misconduct."

He asked people to report when they experience abuse by priests to minors. "In the name of the Church, we would like to tell people that if there has been a crime, if they have suffered or victims of misconduct by a priest, they should report it so that we can act for the good of the church, the person and the community."

expert opinions and claims

Rodolfo Soriano Nuñez, a sociologist in Mexico City, who wrote comprehensively about the Roman Catholic Church and its handling of sexual abuse by clerics, said that despite his shortcomings, Prevost was one of the few bishops in Peru who was seriously trying to tackle sex abuse by priest set up.

"I think Prevost was the best bishop in Peru in dealing with abuse cases in his diocese. And there were many cases," said Soriano-Nuñez. "He went into the topic as far as possible." In contrast to some of his colleagues elsewhere in Peru and the rest of the Latin America, Prevost did not "act against the victims, did not push them into gaslighting or stood out."

In the broader sense, Soriano-Nuñez expressed that it encourages him that the new Pope Leo XIV is not a prince. "Most of his career was not a church man in Rome or Paris. He was a poor Augustinian priest in Peru, worked with farmers and learned Quechua. Learning Spanish is easy for English speakers. But learning Quechua takes time."

Sarah Pearson said Snap had not yet received any feedback from the Vatican to her complaint. "Knowing that Prevost is now Leo XIV gives us to think whether this is ever examined." She added: "We are calling for a zero tolerance law to permanently remove everyone from the service that have abused children ... and there must be independent supervision and a means that can be held responsible."

she appealed to the new Pope to “apologize for his failures and to put these investigations into the hands of people who are not part of the Vatican. If he does not do this, he will not have the credibility that the survivors need to end the cycle of abuse in the Catholic Church.”