Pope Leo XIV Adopts Hands-Off Approach to Promotion of Predator Priests, by Jules Gomes

By Jules Gomes, The Stream, July 17, 2025

Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.

Pontiff maintains public silence as fresh explosion of clerical sex abuse scandals makes headlines

Pope Leo XIV is embracing a non-interventionist policy in tackling clerical sex abuse, even in prominent cases when a bishop has promoted a convicted predator priest and the Vatican has reinstated a cleric convicted of child pornography.

While Leo is drawing thousands of tourists to papal audiences at his summer residence, a fresh eruption of clerical sex abuse scandals in Europe is prompting victims and their advocates to question Leo’s inaction on the issue of sexual misconduct among priests.

Leo has yet to respond to a leading German victim support organization asking him to include laymen and women in the Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith to help deal with abuser priests; the 18 priests in the DDF, they say, “cannot prosecute cases of abuse all over the world.” …

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