Pope meets with clergy abuse survivors in Argentina

What the report says

Pope Leo XIV met privately with five survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Buenos Aires on the second day of his visit to Argentina, according to the Vatican and Reuters reporting carried by Al Jazeera. The closed-door talks were part of his wider 12-day tour of Latin America and, the Vatican said, were intended to let the pope hear survivors’ experiences and discuss ways to strengthen healing and safeguards within the Church.

The meetings came after a large open-air mass in Buenos Aires that drew an estimated 2.5 million people, marking the first papal liturgy in Argentina in nearly four decades. The Vatican said Leo spoke with each survivor individually, listened to their accounts and heard their proposals for improving protection and support. A source snippet from the report said he pledged to reinforce safeguards and listen to victims.

Leo, the first US-born pope, has regularly met abuse survivors during foreign trips as part of efforts to address the Catholic Church’s long-running abuse crisis and restore trust. More broadly, the church has faced decades of scandal over abuse and cover-ups, which continues to shape how such visits are viewed. Argentina is the second stop on Leo’s three-country Latin America tour, which began in Uruguay and is set to continue in Peru.