Pope Leo XIV Says There Should Be No Tolerance For Abuse

June 22, 2025 5:30 am

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has said there should be no tolerance in the Catholic Church for any type of abuse. Leo made his first public comments about the clergy sex abuse scandal in a written message to a Peruvian journalist who documented a particularly egregious case of abuse and financial corruption in a Peruvian-based Catholic movement. In it, Leo said: “It is urgent to root in the whole church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse – neither of power or authority, nor abuse of conscience, spiritual or sexual abuse.” Leo spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru.