Source: Reuters

Pope Leo met with five victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Monday in Buenos Aires, the ​Vatican said, in the first of several expected meetings with survivors during ‌the pontiff’s 12-day trip to South America.

Leo, the first US-born pope, is on a three-country tour through November 17. He has met with survivors during several of his foreign visits, in an effort ​to help repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals have tarnished its reputation.

The meeting ​on Monday lasted more than an hour, the Vatican said, with ⁠Leo listening to the survivors’ testimonies and reaffirming his commitment to strengthen the Church’s ​safeguarding efforts.

“The Pope spoke individually with each of them, listening to their words, their ​painful personal stories, and their proposals for strengthening paths of healing within the Church,” said a statement.

“To them, and through them to the other victims whom it was not possible to meet, the ​Pope expressed his closeness and his desire to strengthen paths of protection, goodness, welcome, ​and support within the Church,” it said.

Abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church throughout Latin America, ‌a ⁠region that has long been a stronghold for the faith but where it has been losing ground recently to fast-growing evangelical denominations.

Ahead of Leo’s visit, some survivors called for stricter accountability measures from the Church, including a global zero-tolerance policy for clergy with credible ​accusations of abuse.

Vatican officials ​have previously cited ⁠the difficulty of creating a single abuse-reporting law across all countries and argued that removing priests can put them beyond Church ​supervision.

Leo served as a missionary in Peru for decades before becoming ​pope.

Some survivors ⁠credit him with pushing for the Vatican to dissolve the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based Catholic community that faced allegations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse inside the group. It ⁠was dissolved ​by the late Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, in ​2025.