Pope Leo to meet Catholic abuse survivors on Spain trip

[LightAngel]

VATICAN CITY, June 5 (Reuters) - Pope Leo will meet with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic ‌clergy during his week-long visit to Spain, the Vatican said on Friday.

Further information will only be provided after the ⁠meeting, a statement said, so as to protect the survivors' privacy.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, is leaving on Saturday to visit Spain and the Canary Islands from June 6 to 12.

The possibility ‌of ⁠the pope meeting abuse survivors had been the subject of media reporting in recent days.

A 2023 report ⁠by Spain's human rights ombudsman estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of ⁠clergy abuse there over decades, echoing similar scandals that ⁠have shaken the Church in places across the globe.

https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-leo-meet-catholic-abuse-survivors-spain-trip-vatican-says-2026-06-05/

 

[Freija]

I will hold back sharing my real feelings about this subject in general because it is difficult to overcome my own bias enough to comment dispassionately. Suffice it to say I am an anti-theist which is not to be confused with atheist. The latter seems to me to be a belief system of its own?

Abuse of this nature is a widespread institutional problem within the Catholic church as well of others that somehow gets overlooked. There's a 2015 movie, Spotlight, which documents an investigative teams findings on the scope of this problem in the Boston area that ends with some sobering statistics about how widespread and common this kind of abuse really is. (available to rent on Prime Video & occasionally on Netflix)

I hardly think the pope meeting with survivors will do them any good but makes a good photo op to look like something is actually being done about this problem. It's not like they haven't known about this happening for a very long time.

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--Christopher Hitchens

 

[LightAngel]

I am not a religious person, but I am a spiritual person and I do believe in an afterlife, and I believe that Jesus is a universal message of love.

Our consciouness is a part of the true God, but human religion has very little to do with it.


Anyway, as I just said on The Landing Area, I really don't understand how people who believe in Jesus can cover up for crimes like this?

How can they sleep at night?

Jesus always defended the vulnerable and confronted corrupt leaders.

So when people cover up these crimes they are betraying Jesus's teachings - I guess some churches teach people to protect the church at all costs, and it makes them sicker and sicker.

Just saying.

 

[GRIZZ0317]

Have to agree with Freija on this one. Until I see him actually do something about it, this is just a photo op. It's like my state raising taxes on cigarettes, then go "See, we're helping peoples health by making the cigarettes more expensive" when we all know they're lining their pockets with that extra money.

 

[Freija]

Pope Leo visits a polarized Spain where conservatives are turning on the church

It's a pretty long article.

MADRID — As Pope Leo XIV lands in Spain on Saturday for the first papal visit here in 15 years, a realignment between Catholicism and politics is underway on both sides of the Atlantic.

During the era of Franco, the fascist dictator known as El Generalísimo, the Spanish Catholic Church backed National Catholicism — a fusion of faith and right-wing politics that became a trend in Europe and the United States.

When the left returned to power in 1982, Spanish bishops marched in anti-government protests, railing against the lifting of a ban on abortion and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

More recently, the shift by Pope Francis — away from judgment in the bedroom, toward tolerance, including sympathy for migrants — created a new universe in which conservatives are the ones criticizing a church that leftists appear more willing to embrace than ever.

As President Donald Trump feuds with Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, and leading American cardinals clash with the MAGA movement, Spanish arch-conservatives are warring with a Catholic Church they once saw as a powerful ally, especially over the church’s advocacy for migrants.

“The far right in Spain wants to copy the far right in the United States,” said Bishop José Mazuelos Pérez, who heads a Canary Islands diocese providing shelter, food, blankets and medical care for a host of arriving migrants. “To go to war with the bishops over the issue of migration.”

Leo’s goals may be increasingly difficult to achieve as hard-line critics accuse the church of embracing causes of the political left, and Spain is now a microcosm of the seething division over migration and other hot-button topics.

The pope is expected to address polarization in a highly anticipated speech to the gridlocked Spanish parliament Monday in what some are portraying as a keynote papal message to the Western world. He is set to nod to different quarters of the church, holding a prayer vigil with youths on Saturday before marching Sunday in the kind of street procession long embraced by Spanish traditionalists.