Pope Leo XIV used a Thursday audience with cardinals and bishops in the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith to urge an approach to clergy sex abuse cases rooted in “truth, justice and charity,” according to the Associated Press. The meeting focused on how the Vatican’s doctrine office — which also processes sex-abuse cases worldwide — should handle decisions connected to allegations involving priests and minors.
In his remarks, Leo said the area required careful attention to ensure that the standards of justice, truth and charity are “always honored and respected,” the AP reported. The Pope dedicated a relatively limited portion of his wider address to abuse during a meeting with the members of the dicastery, which is the Vatican’s doctrine office and also one of the institutions that processes abuse cases under Catholic canon law.
The AP reported that Leo did not mention victims in his speech to the dicastery, a choice that AP said appeared to suggest he wanted the doctrinal office to function largely as a church tribunal rather than as a pastoral-oriented body. The Vatican’s abuse-related structures also include another entity, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which has been a point of reference for survivors, the AP said.
According to the AP, Pope Francis had made that survivors-focused commission part of the doctrine office, but Leo appeared to want the two roles kept functionally separate. AP reported that no one from the survivor commission participated in Thursday’s audience with the dicastery members, highlighting the distinction Leo was drawing between different kinds of Vatican involvement.
Leo told the doctrine office members to welcome and accompany the religious superiors who — under canon law — investigate and sanction priests accused of molesting or abusing young people. The doctrine office’s role, as described by the AP, is tied to how cases are processed within the Vatican’s legal and canonical framework, while the superiors’ investigative and disciplinary work is part of the church’s internal process.
The Associated Press also connected Leo’s comments to his broader approach to the crisis in recent months, saying he had indicated a cautious method that both stresses better listening to victims and expresses concern about protecting the rights of priests. AP said Leo has emphasized, in separate meetings, that church leaders must do more to truly listen and accompany abuse victims rather than closing off communication.
In a closed-door meeting with cardinals from around the world on Jan. 8, Leo told them, “We cannot close our eyes or hearts,” according to the AP. The AP reported that he added, “The pain of the victims has often been greater because they did not feel welcomed or heard,” framing the church’s credibility challenges as linked to whether survivors felt listened to and engaged.
After the Thursday audience with the doctrine office, Leo moved to a separate meeting with consecrated members of Regnum Christi, the lay branch of the Legion of Christ. The AP reported that the Legion is having a general assembly in Rome, and that the group was once again holding an assembly to elect new leadership, though there was no mention of whether Leo met with Legion priests.
The AP reported that Leo did not mention the Legion in his remarks to the Regnum Christi members and did not refer to the Legion’s founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who died in 2008. The AP said Leo suggested that reforms launched by the Vatican in 2010 after Maciel’s crimes came to light were still a work in progress, including calls for Regnum Christi to better define its spiritual inspiration and to find new styles of governance.
The AP also described how a Vatican investigation into the Legion and Regnum Christi identified “profound problems” in what it said was a cultlike organization, including abuses of authority and the way authority was exercised by superiors, and concluded that a process of “purification” was required. In the Regnum Christi meeting, Leo said “a truly evangelical government” should be oriented toward service, supporting and accompanying members and encouraging them to become more like the savior each day, the AP reported.
Following similar themes of governance and authority, the Pope encouraged Regnum Christi members “not to be afraid to experiment with new models of governance,” saying that the collective search for how authority is exercised could open paths that enrich communities and strengthen a sense of belonging and participation in the organization’s mission.