VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV met Monday for the first time with an organization of clergy abuse survivors and advocates. The group said the pope agreed to maintain a permanent dialogue with them as they press for a zero-tolerance policy on abuse within the Catholic Church.
Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) is a global organization made up of abuse victims and activists campaigning to universalize the U.S. church’s abuse policy. Among other provisions, this policy calls for the permanent removal from ministry of any priest who abuses a child.
Pope Leo acknowledged “there was great resistance” to the idea of a universal zero-tolerance law, according to Tim Law, ECA co-founder. However, Law said he told the pope that ECA wants to work with him and the Vatican to move the idea forward.
As history’s first American pope, Leo recognized the significance of meeting with ECA as an activist organization, members shared at a press conference. While Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI before him met with individual victims, they had kept activist and advocacy organizations at an arm’s length.
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