A Peruvian woman assaulted by a priest alleges Pope Leo XIV, while he was a bishop in Peru, neglected to investigate her case.
Ana María Quispe Díaz of Chiclayo, Peru, appeared publicly for the first time in downtown Chicago alongside advocates from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group representing survivors of clergy abuse.
“I have been quiet since the pope was elected, but I am not planning on being quiet forever,” Díaz, 29, told reporters Thursday through a translator.
Díaz alleges she was abused by a priest in Chiclayo when she was 9 years old. Her two sisters were also assaulted by the same priest. In April 2022, she said, the three sisters brought their allegations to Robert Prevost, who was then Bishop of Chiclayo.
“He told us how much he appreciates us for coming forward,”Díaz said. “He told us, ‘You are very brave and I believe you.'”
But Prevost never opened an investigation into the priest, Díaz alleged.
Vatican officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Vatican ended its own investigation into the alleged abuse in 2023 after civil authorities said the allegations were beyond the statute of limitations, according to The New York Times. The Vatican told the paper that Prevost had done more than was required by church procedures in investigating the allegations in at least one of the cases.
Last summer, the new bishop at the Diocese of Chiclayo said their case was “improperly handled” and opened an investigation, according to SNAP, the network of survivors. But the priest, who continued to work for the church, is now able to voluntarily retire from ministry and the investigation has been delayed, said Sarah Pearson, a spokesperson for SNAP.
“For all the bishops and cardinals in the Catholic church who have been a part of the cover-up, there needs to be accountability,” Pearson said Thursday. “That accountability is not going to come through the church itself. Civil society needs to demand this type of change.”
SNAP has repeatedly called on the Vatican to enshrine in canon law that the Catholic church has zero tolerance for sexually assaulting children and any clergy member who does so should be permanently removed from the church. That’s currently the standard in the United States but not globally.
In addition to the zero-tolerance law, SNAP demands the Vatican provide reparations for survivors, enter into international legal agreements, and establish an independent panel of survivors and experts overseeing how bishops handle abuse cases.
