Pope Leo XIV urges Spanish bishops to offer abuse reparations, then meets survivors amid victim-group criticism

Demands to the bishops

Pope Leo XIV began the third day of his week-long visit to Spain by addressing the country's Catholic hierarchy at the Episcopal Conference headquarters in Madrid. He told the bishops the church must respond to the abuse crisis with "listening, truth, justice, reparation" and an "ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care."

Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.

The pope described encounters with survivors as among the most painful of his trip, noting they had been wounded "by the very people who should have cared for them, including members of the clergy." A 2023 report by Spain's human rights ombudsman estimated that hundreds of thousands of minors had been victims of clerical abuse since 1940.

Meeting with six survivors

Later on Monday, Leo met privately with six victims of sexual abuse by members of the Spanish clergy. The Vatican said the nearly hour-long meeting was organised by the Spanish bishops' conference. Each participant presented proposals for making the church's response to abuse cases more effective.

The pope assured them of his commitment that the proposals would serve as the basis for new efforts and that the church could truly be a safe and spiritually healthy place, where wounds find comfort and healing.

Victim groups protest exclusion

Seven victims' associations criticised the meeting, saying the church had selected a group of survivors who participate in church-run programmes while excluding independent organisations. Juan Cuatrecasas, spokesperson for the Robbed Childhood association, said the excluded groups had requested a meeting with the pope before the trip to report on ongoing abuse cases and cover-ups by church officials.

We are pleased that a group of victims from the reparation plan can be heard by the pope, but they do not represent all the victims, and deep down they are being used by the church, by the bishops conference, to clean up the image of a Spanish church that has never been able to live up to its victims.

The groups held a small protest outside the Vatican's embassy in Madrid, emphasising that their criticism was directed at the Spanish bishops' conference rather than at Leo personally.

Spain's reparations system

Spain launched a reparations system earlier this year for clerical abuse cases too old to be prosecuted. The mechanism requires participation from both the Catholic Church and the Spanish government, with the government holding a strong role in the process and the final say on payouts. Applicants have one year to file claims. The system has drawn both praise and scepticism from advocacy groups.

Address to parliament

Leo also delivered a rare papal address to Spain's parliament on Monday, receiving a seven-minute standing ovation from lawmakers. Speaking in Spanish, he described a world in "a profound spiritual and cultural crisis, manifesting in multiple forms of violence, polarisation and mutual distrust." He warned against rearmament being presented as inevitable, rejected the growing military spending in Europe, and called for ethical vigilance over artificial intelligence in warfare. The pope also reaffirmed the church's traditional positions on defending life, family, religious freedom, and the secrecy of confession.