Peru abuse watchdog urges truth commission before Pope Leo visit
BishopAccountability.org called for an investigation into Catholic Church abuse and released a database of people it says have faced allegations, as Pope Leo prepares to visit Peru.
BishopAccountability.org called on Nov. 5 for Peru to establish a truth commission investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, according to Reuters, as Pope Leo prepared for a South American visit that includes meetings with abuse survivors. The US-based watchdog also published a database of Peruvian clergy and religious figures it says have been accused of abusing children or vulnerable people.
At a press conference in Lima, the group’s co-director Anne Barrett Doyle accused Peru’s Church hierarchy of secrecy and of failing to confront abuse allegations adequately. She said secrecy puts children at risk, denies victims validation and prevents civil authorities from identifying and prosecuting people who may have been complicit, Reuters reported. Those are Barrett Doyle’s claims; the database’s allegations have not been independently established in the report.
Representatives of the Archdiocese of Lima and the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported. BishopAccountability.org also urged Leo to condemn what it described as judicial persecution of journalists who have investigated abuse cases.
Pope Leo’s Peru visit and the abuse survivors he is due to meet
Reuters reported that Peru was scheduled to be the final leg of Leo’s Nov. 6–17 South American tour. The Vatican had said he would meet survivors of physical and sexual abuse during the regional visit. Barrett Doyle said Leo had spoken compassionately about listening to and accompanying victims, but she wanted him to address accountability for bishops during the trip.
Leo has personal ties to Peru: Reuters reported that he arrived there as a missionary in the 1980s, later became a citizen and served as bishop of Chiclayo. The planned northern Peru itinerary also comes amid a weather emergency. MercoPress reported that the government declared a two-month state of emergency over the risk of heavy El Niño-related rain in 1,380 of the country’s 1,891 districts—about 73 percent—including all the places Leo was scheduled to visit in the north from Nov. 13.
Recent rains flooded homes and streets, affecting 324 people in Tumbes, and caused flooding in Chulucanas, in the Piura region, MercoPress reported. Leo lived in Chulucanas in 1985 during his early missionary years. Peru’s scientific commission expects the El Niño episode to last until June 2027, the outlet reported.
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Sources and context
- US watchdog calls for truth commission to investigate Church abuses cases in PeruReuters, republished by The Straits Times
- Peru declares an El Niño emergency in nearly three-quarters of the country ahead of the Pope’s visitMercoPress
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.