Victims of sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy have expressed hope after meeting Pope Leo at the Vatican for the first time.
Gemma Hickey, board president of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA Global), told the BBC it spoke “volumes” he had met them so soon in his papacy.
The group is pushing for a global zero-tolerance policy, already adopted in the US, of permanently removing a priest who admits or is proven to have sexually abused a child. The Pope acknowledged there was “resistance in some parts of the world” to this, Hickey said.
The new Pope, who assumed the role in May, has inherited the issue, which has haunted the Catholic Church for decades and the Vatican has struggled to root out.
His predecessor, Pope Francis, tried to address the problem by holding an unprecedented summit on paedophilia in the Church, and by changing its laws to explicitly criminalise sexual abuse, but problems remain.
A recent Vatican-commissioned report was unusually critical of Church leaders, saying victims and survivors had frequently raised the lack of accountability of bishops and superiors. Many historic cases were allegedly covered up.
ECA Global also acknowledged pockets of resistance to a zero-tolerance policy, Hickey said. “We were all being realistic when we recognised that there is resistance.”
For Hickey, who uses they/them pronouns, the drive to see such a policy adopted worldwide is personal, as the Canadian said they were abused by a priest who was then shuffled between parishes.
Hickey said Monday’s meeting was “historic” and “a big step for all of us”.
“Hopefully this will set the tone for his papacy, because we want to work with him. We have the same goal, we want to end clergy abuse.”
Six board members and one other representative of ECA, a coalition of victims and advocates representing survivors from more than 30 countries, sat in a semi-circle in the Pope’s Vatican office, with the pontiff at the head.
During the meeting – which was scheduled for 20 minutes but lasted an hour – the Pope “mostly listened to us”, Hickey said.
The Pope was “quite empathetic” hearing the story of a woman abused at a Catholic residential school for Indigenous children in Canada, and “tender” about Hickey’s own experience, they 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 giving us lip service. I felt like he was genuine, realistic, and very open and eager to collaborate with us.”
The group is hoping a change of canon law will bring about the zero-tolerance policy worldwide, and has spoken to experts and compiled documents that they will give to Pope Leo.
“He seemed interested in looking at it,” Hickey said.
The Vatican’s child protection commission 100-page report emphasised the “importance of a streamlined protocol for the resignation and/or removal of Church leaders or personnel in cases of abuse or negligence”.
It said victims and survivors stressed the “urgent need for bishops and major superiors to be held accountable for negligence and cover-up was repeatedly stressed”.
It also relayed concerns about information not being provided to victims on how their reports of abuse were being handled, and said the public should know when a Church official had resigned or been removed due to abuse or negligence.
Hickey said they told the Pope at the start of the meeting: “This is as much a risk for him to engage in a dialogue as it was for us.”
After the meeting, they were hopeful for change.
“We realise it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, but at the end of the day, coming together and establishing a relationship and continuing to build that relationship is a step in the right direction.”
Hickey said they told Pope Leo that “just because it’s a dark chapter, I feel like we can change how the story ends – he appreciated that”.
