A frontrunner of a gaggle of priest abuse survivors that attempted to derail Robert Prevost’s probabilities of turning into pope has ‘an ironic sense of happiness’ that the Catholic Church ignored its warnings.
Prevost’s choice as Leo XIV, the 267th pope, will shine way more mild on hidden sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, hopes Eduardo Lopez de Casas.
‘For them to selected a cardinal who has hidden sexual abuse and is American solely implies that this individual shall be scrutinized from left to proper,’ Lopez de Casas, a sufferer of clergy abuse and nationwide vice chairman of the Survivors Community of these Abused by Clergymen (SNAP) advised DailyMail.com.
‘That is useful for victims in all places as a result of we have now this pope who shall be underneath the general public eye when it comes to issues he was concerned with up to now.’
The cardinals who supported the brand new pope on this week’s secret conclave disregarded the American cardinal’s document of trying previous sexual abuse allegations in and round Chicago and, extra not too long ago, in Peru.
‘You’ll be able to’t cowl up sexual abuse and be a superb priest,’ Lopez de Casas mentioned.
‘Staying silent is a sin. It is not what God desires us to do. Jesus desires us to cease this stuff, not make a heathy backyard for sexual abuse to develop.’
SNAP and different teams had made the 135 eligible cardinals who chosen him properly conscious of Prevost’s inaction on the allegations.
Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope on Thursday, taking the identify Leo XIV
Crowds thronged in St. Peter’s Sq. to listen to Pope Leo’s first phrases as pontiff
Eduardo Lopez de Casas hopes that Pope Leo’s election will shine a brighter mild on sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church
‘He was excessive on our watchlist at SNAP to ensure he was not chosen for pope,’ added Lopez de Casas, 65. ‘However now, right here we’re.
Lopez de Casas grew up in Galveston, Texas, and says he was abused by lecturers within the public faculty system there.
His mom, suspecting one thing had occurred to him however unable to pinpoint it, despatched him to a parish priest in Galveston, who made him display to him what the lecturers had finished to him.
‘I used to be then abused by the priest,’ he advised DailyMail.com.
Though he was vocal about it as a child, he mentioned his dad and mom weren’t native English audio system and had been by no means suggested to report it to authorities.
Amongst different criticisms, Prevost has been slammed for not having opened a proper church investigation into alleged sexual abuse carried out by two clergymen within the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, which he led from 2014 to 2023.
The Pillar, a Catholic information outlet that investigates the church, has reported on accusations that the diocese mishandled allegations by Ana Maria Quispe and her two youthful sisters, Juana Mercedes and Aura Teresa, that Father Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles courting again to 2007. Allegations had been additionally made in opposition to one other priest, The Pillar reported.
As Cardinal Prevost, Pope Leo visited Windfall Catholic Excessive Faculty on the outskirts of Chicago
Newly elected American Pope Leo XIV got here from humble beginnings in southern Chicago suburbs the place, as newly ordained Rev. Robert Prevost he met Pope John Paul II in 1982
The alleged victims mentioned in a press release that, underneath Prevosts’s watch in 2022, the Diocese downplayed particulars and documentation of their allegations that it despatched to the Vatican, deliberately stopping the church from taking motion in opposition to the clergymen accused. They allege the church blew off their reviews.
‘The allegations that Prevost engaged in masking up abuse reviews are notably important, since Prevost’s present put up as head of the Dicastery for Bishops oversees complaints and investigations of episcopal negligence in abuse instances all over the world,’ the Pillar wrote in a September 2024 article.
The outlet reported that Prevost had met with the accusers in April 2022, and inspired them to take their case to the civil authorities whereas the church investigated.
That probe reportedly ‘was shelved for lack of proof and since the statute of limitations had expired’.
Different criticisms that Prevost missed sexual abuse stem from Chicago, the place he grew up.
As reported by the Will County Gazette, which covers suburbs southwest of the town, Prevost allowed an Augustinian priest, Father James Ray, to reside on the St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park regardless of Ray having been yanked from ministering to the general public 9 years earlier due to accusations of sexually abusing minors.
Prevost apparently did not notify the heads of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic faculty, an elementary faculty half a block from the friary as a result of, the church mentioned on the time, Ray was imagined to be carefully monitored within the friary.
As reported by the Will County Gazette, which covers suburbs southwest of the town, Prevost allowed an Augustinian priest, Father James Ray, to reside on the St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park regardless of Ray having been yanked from ministering to the general public 9 years earlier due to accusations of sexually abusing minors.
Ray remained in shut proximity to the college for 2 years till relocated underneath new guidelines handed by the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops to maintain clergymen accused of preying on minors bodily far-off from kids.
Cardinal Prevost arrived on the last congregation assembly earlier than the conclave on Might 3, not realizing he would quickly be the brand new pope
Cardinal Prevost led a service in St. Peter’s Sq. in March to hope for Pope Francis whose well being was failing
One in all his last public acts earlier than being elected Pope was to attend the Palm Sunday Mass within the Vatican on April 13
Pope Leo XIV had a spiritual upbringing in a quaint 1,200-square-foot brick house in Dolton, Illinois
One other disgraced priest additionally lived on the friary throughout his watch.
Father Richard McGrath, who was ousted because the longtime principal and president of Windfall Catholic Excessive Faculty within the Chicago suburb of New Lenox after a scholar reported seeing nude photos of boys on his cellphone.
Former Windfall scholar Robert Krankvich accused McGrath of forcing him to carry out varied intercourse acts whereas he was a toddler. Krankvich went on to battle with dependancy for a lot of his grownup life.
After reaching a $2 million settlement with the Catholic church, Krankvich died in April of addiction-related well being points.
‘Cash does not carry happiness . . . it gave him no closure,’ his father, additionally named Robert Krankvich, advised the Chicago Solar-Instances.
As a part of its work highlighting candidates for the papacy, whom it says have lined up sexual abuse, SNAP wrote a letter to the Vatican slamming what it referred to as Prevost’s inaction in Peru and Chicago.
Prevost’s management function within the Midwest Augustinians from 1998 to 2014 included overseeing the highschool. As Lopez de Casas – who labored for the Galveston, Texas diocese for 18 years – tells it, Prevost allowed McGrath to prey on college students there a number of years earlier than he was ousted in 2017.
In the meantime, Windfall Catholic Excessive Faculty maintains shut ties with the brand new pope. Its present president, Father John Merkelis, went to seminary with Prevost in Holland, Michigan, within the early 70s, and Prevost has given mass on the faculty. He describes him as ‘very clever, delicate, pastoral and all the time among the best in his class.’
‘It’s simply good news,’ he advised DailyMail.com shortly after information of Prevost’s choice on Thursday. ‘We’re all simply beaming right here.’
‘It is so cool to see the children so excited,’ added Theresa Thormeyer, the executive assistant within the faculty’s dean’s workplace.
