Pope Leo has called on the Catholic Church bishops to take decisive action against sexual abuse by priests and to avoid concealing allegations of misconduct.
The pope’s message was delivered on Thursday during a closed-door meeting with about 200 bishops appointed within the past year. A summary of the session was released by the Vatican on Friday.
“(Allegations) cannot be put in a drawer,” Leo said. “They must be faced, with a sense of mercy and true justice, toward the victims and toward the accused.”
The Catholic Church has grappled with decades of abuse scandals across the world, which have eroded public trust, triggered costly lawsuits, and forced the resignation of senior clergy.
Leo, elected in May following the death of Pope Francis, has previously urged priests to be “firm and decisive” in addressing cases of abuse.
Francis, who led the 1.4-billion-member Church for 12 years, made confronting clerical abuse a central theme of his papacy, though his reforms delivered mixed results.
In his address, Leo also appeared to affirm some of Francis’ wider priorities, encouraging bishops to promote an inclusive Church and to remain engaged with contemporary society.
He told the clerics they should “renew their contact with the world in order to answer the questions the men and women of our time are asking,” according to the Vatican summary.
