Pope León XIV will meet abuse victims during Latin America trip in November

Vatican announces meetings during the trip

On Tuesday, 27 October 2026, the Holy See Press Office said Pope León XIV will hold some meetings with people abused by members of the clergy and the Church during his trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, which runs from 6 to 17 November. The statement did not say when, where or with whom the meetings will take place. The Vatican presented them as an expression of the pope's closeness to people who have suffered and still suffer from this violence, and as a way to build accessible paths to healing.

“Some meetings are planned with people who have been victims of abuse by members of the clergy and of the Church.”

Earlier papal trips have also featured such meetings, including those of Benedict XVI to the United States, Britain, Australia and Germany and those of Francisco to Chile, Ireland, Portugal and Belgium.

Earlier meetings with victims

On 8 June the pope met six victims at the nunciature in Madrid for about an hour. The group was linked to the Repara project of the Archdiocese of Madrid, and he asked them for proposals to make the Church's response more effective. Madrid was the first city abroad where he met people abused inside the Church. On 27 September in Lourdes he spent two hours with seven victims of abuse by priests, four men and three women, at the bishop's palace, and pledged that the harm they suffered would not be repeated. Before those trips, in the Vatican, he had received members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse, victims from Belgium and the Irishman David Ryan, who was abused as a child at a school in Dublin.

On the flight back from Lourdes to Rome, the pope told reporters that abuse is first and foremost a human problem.

“Sexual abuse is, first and foremost, a human problem.”

He added that when abuse happens within the Church it takes on a completely different dimension, because the faith of those affected is deeply wounded and sometimes destroyed.

Madrid (8 June)6

Lourdes (27 September)7

Madrid (8 June)

6 victims

Lourdes (27 September)

7 victims

Data from the article text

Survivors in Peru press for a meeting

About thirty survivors of the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, a Peruvian religious organization that Pope Francisco dissolved after decades of abuse, asked to meet the pope during his visit to Peru. Their letter was delivered on 26 October at the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima. The Vatican has not said whether Sodalicio victims will be among those the pope receives. Deutsche Welle reports that the Vatican announced in April plans to compensate victims of the movement. Enrique Escardó, who was the first to denounce Sodalicio abuses in 2000, called the Vatican's change of stance 'a good sign' but fears the meeting will be a 'make-up' gathering with silent victims who are favourable to the Church. In January 2025, when Robert Prevost was still a cardinal, Escardó spent an hour with him at the Dicastery for Bishops and handed over a two-page proposal, which he plans to bring again if he meets León XIV in Peru.

The pope's health and the itinerary

León XIV is 71. Doctors who monitor him after a lung operation on 13 October, which removed the lower lobe of his right lung for adenocarcinoma, judged him fit for the long trip. The Vatican said his clinical situation shows no contraindications to travel. Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's foreign minister, said in Rome that the operation is 'a bit of a turning point' in how Catholics see the pope's health, and that the illness showed Robert Prevost is 'a poor mortal like the rest of us'. The itinerary takes the pope to Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida in Uruguay, and to Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján in Argentina. In Peru, he will visit Lima, Chiclayo, Cuzco and Pucallpa from 11 to 16 November. He lived in Peru for more than 20 years as a missionary and bishop, and Chiclayo is the city where he served as bishop.