A major support and advocacy group for survivors of church sexual abuse, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, marked the death of Pope Francis on Monday, calling his papacy a “preventable catastrophe for the children and vulnerable people who were abused during his tenure.”
The group said it drafted a letter to deliver to Pope Francis last month that urged him “to use his remaining time to implement a true zero-tolerance law that includes independent oversight of bishops.”
“We feel it is important to reach out to you now, even as you continue your physical recovery, which we hope will soon bring you back to us,” the letter said. “We anticipate that some may criticize us for raising this issue while you are still healing. However, when is it ever the right time to discuss the alarming reality of rape and sexual violence against children, which occurs every minute of every hour of every day in this troubled world?”
On Monday, SNAP called for the next pope to have no history of covering up sexual abuse, and the group demanded that he “institute a zero tolerance law for sexual abuse that immediately removes abusive clergy and leaders who have covered up abuse from ministry and mandates independent oversight of bishops.”
“He must use his authority to enact fundamental, institutional changes to end the systematic practice of sexual abuse and its concealment,” the group said.
In May 2024, Pope Francis sat down with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a wide-ranging interview, and she asked him whether, in his view, the church had done enough to address the sexual abuse scandal.
“It must continue to do more,” replied Francis. “Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous. And against this, an upright conscience and not only to not permit it, but to put in place the conditions so that it does not happen.”
Francis said sexual abuse “cannot be tolerated” under any circumstances in the church, and “when there is a case of a religious man or woman who abuses, the full force of the law falls upon them. In this there has been a great deal of progress.”
The pope met about six months after that interview with Belgian survivors of clergy sexual abuse, in an encounter described by some of the survivors as “intense.”
Francis promised to “offer all the help we can” to help victims of church abuse after meeting the Belgian group and hearing their stories first-hand.
“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere told The Associated Press after the meeting. “I have also been lucky enough to get a diploma and build a life for myself. But there are so many people who are completely broke and who need help and who cannot afford it and who really need urgent help now.”
Van Sumere said he was encouraged by what he called the group’s “positive” meeting with Francis, but that he was still waiting to see what would come out of it.
“It was at certain moments very emotional and at certain moments it was very rough. When the pope was told things he did not agree with, he also let it be known, so there was real interaction,” Van Sumere said.
Francis did take several concrete actions during his pontificate to address the scandal and how the church handles reported abuse. In 2019 he opened the first-ever Vatican summit on child protection, warning bishops that the faithful had demanded action, not just condemnation of clergy sexual abuse.
Later that same year, Francisissued a new church law requiring instances of clergy sexual abuse to be reported in-house, although not to police. The rule established procedures for investigating accused bishops, cardinals and religious superiors. He took another step later in 2019, abolishing the use of the “pontifical secret” in clergy sex abuse cases, allowing bishops to share internal documentation about abusers with law enforcement, though still not obligating them to do so.
