Catholic priests are hopeful for victims of sexual abuse after Pope Leo’s visit

Victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy have expressed hope after meeting Pope Leo for the first time at the Vatican.

Gemma Hickey, president of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA Global), told the BBC that it spoke “volumes” to have met him so early in his papacy.

The group is pushing for a global zero-tolerance policy, which has already been adopted in the US, to permanently remove priests who admit or are proven to have sexually abused a child. The pope acknowledged there was “opposition in some parts of the world,” Hickey said.

The new pope, who took office in May, inherits the issue, which has haunted the Catholic Church for decades and which the Vatican has struggled to root out.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, tried to address the problem by holding an unprecedented summit on pedophilia in the church and changing its laws to explicitly criminalize sexual abuse, but problems remain.

A A recent Vatican-commission report Church leaders have been unusually critical, saying that victims and survivors have repeatedly blamed bishops and superiors for their lack of accountability. Many historical cases were allegedly covered up.

ECA Global also acknowledged pockets of resistance to the zero-tolerance policy, Hickey said. “We were all realistic when we recognized there was resistance.”

For Hickey, who uses the pronouns they/their, the drive to see such a policy adopted worldwide is personal, as the Canadian said he was abused by a priest who later changed parishes.

Hickey said Monday’s meeting was “historic” and “a big step forward for all of us.”

“Hopefully this will set the tone for his papacy, because we want to work with him. We have only one goal, we want to end clerical abuse.”

Six board members and another representative from ECA, a coalition of lawyers representing victims and survivors from more than 30 countries, sat in a semi-circle in the Pope’s Vatican office, headed by

During the meeting – which was scheduled for 20 minutes but lasted an hour – the pope “mostly listened to us”, Hickey said.

The pope was “very sympathetic” after hearing the story of a woman who was abused at a Catholic residential school for indigenous children in Canada and “heartfelt” about Hickey’s own experience, he added.

The first North American leader of the Catholic Church was “very humble, funny, (and) very down to earth”, Hickey said.

“Survivors have long wanted a seat at the table, and I didn’t feel like he was paying us lip service. I felt like he was genuine, realistic and very open and eager to collaborate with us.”

The group hopes that the change in canon law will lead to a zero-tolerance policy worldwide, and has spoken to experts and compiled documents it will give to Pope Leo.

“He was interested in seeing it,” Hickey said.

A 100-page report by the Vatican’s Child Protection Commission emphasized the “importance of well-structured protocols for the resignation and/or removal of church leaders or employees in cases of abuse or neglect.”

It said victims and survivors “have an urgent need to hold bishops and key superiors accountable for the negligence and repeated emphasis on cover-ups.”

It also expressed concern that victims were not being provided with information about how their reports of abuse were being handled, and said the public should know when a church official resigned or was fired for abuse or negligence.

Hickey said he told the pope at the start of the meeting: “For us to engage in dialogue is as much a risk for him.”

After the meeting, he hoped for a change.

“We understand that it’s not going to happen overnight, but at the end of the day, coming together and building relationships and building those relationships is a step in the right direction.”

Hickey said he told Pope Leo that “just because it’s a dark chapter, I think we can change how the story ends – he appreciated that”.