Pope Leo meets with coalition of clergy abuse survivors
Pope Leo XIV met with a coalition of abuse survivors and victims' advocates for the first time at the Vatican on October 20.
Members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse met with the pope for about an hour in a closed-door meeting that was later confirmed by the Vatican, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
"This was a deeply meaningful conversation," Gemma Hickey, Ending Clergy Abuse board president and survivor of clergy abuse in Canada, said in a press release. "It reflects a shared commitment to justice, healing and real change."
"Survivors have long sought a seat at the table, and today we felt heard," Hickey said in the statement.
"Pope Leo is very warm, he listened," Hickey said at a news conference, according to Reuters. "We told him that we come as bridge-builders, ready to walk together toward truth, justice and healing."
While the group of six people representing Ending Clergy Abuse met with the pope, video clips from the Vatican also showed a separate meeting between Leo and Pedro Salinas, a Peruvian journalist and abuse survivor.
Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who suffered physical and psychological abuse by the movement's founder, Luis Fernando Figari, is seen in the footage giving the pope a copy of his new book, The Truth Sets Us Free, in Spanish.
The book recounts his attempts to bring to light the truth about the movement, which was eventually suppressed.
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