Pope tells Vatican office that processes sex abuse cases to uphold truth, justice and charity

Pope Leo XIV arrives for his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV told the Vatican’s doctrine office on Thursday to uphold truth, justice and charity when deciding clergy sex abuse cases, confirming a calibrated approach to dealing with a scandal that has tarnished the Catholic Church’s credibility worldwide.

History’s first American pope dedicated only a small part of his speech to abuse in an address to members of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that polices Catholic doctrine but also processes abuse cases worldwide.

What Leo didn’t say was almost more significant than what he did: Leo made no mention of victims in his speech, suggesting he believes the dicastery should function almost exclusively as a church tribunal, not a pastoral office.

Another Vatican department, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, has become a main point of reference for abuse survivors. Pope Francis had made the commission part of the doctrine office, but Leo appears keen to keep the two functionally separate. No one from the survivor commission participated in Thursday’s audience.

Leo told the bishops and cardinal members of the doctrine office that they should welcome and accompany the religious superiors who, according to the church’s canon law, are responsible for investigating and sanctioning priests who molest or abuse young people.

“It is a very delicate area of ministry, in which it is essential to ensure that the requirements of justice, truth and charity are always honored and respected,” Leo said.

Two decades after the abuse scandal exploded in his native U.S., Leo has indicated a generally cautious approach to handling abuse cases. He has insisted that church leaders must better listen to victims but also expressed concern that the rights of priests be better protected.

During a recent closed-door meeting with cardinals from around the world, Leo said the abuse crisis was by no means over and that church leaders needed to do better to truly, actively listen to victims and accompany them.

“We cannot close our eyes or hearts,” Leo told cardinals June 8. “The pain of the victims has often been greater because they did not feel welcomed or heard.”

A meeting with the lay group of the Legion of Christ

Perhaps coincidentally, Leo went from the doctrine office audience Thursday into a separate meeting with consecrated members of Regnum Christi, the lay branch of the Legion of Christ religious order.

The Mexico-based Legion remains the Catholic Church’s most egregious case of 20th century clergy sexual abuse and cover up: The Vatican in 2006 sanctioned its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, to a lifetime of penance and prayer, but only after it ignored five decades of credible reports that Maciel was a pedophile, con artist, drug addict and religious fraud.

Leo met with members of the Regnum Christi who are having a general assembly in Rome. The Legion too is having its once-every-six-year assembly to elect a new leadership, but there’s no word if Leo will meet with Legion priests.

Leo didn’t mention the Legion in his remarks to Regnum Christi. Nor did he refer to the founder of both movements, Maciel, who died in 2008. But he suggested that the Vatican-imposed reform launched in 2010 after Maciel’s crimes came to light was still a work in progress. He noted that Regnum Christi still needed to better define its unique spiritual inspiration, known in church terms as a charism, that justifies its existence and to find new styles of governance.

The Vatican investigation into the Legion and Regnum Christi identified profound problems in the cultlike organization, including abuses of authority and the way authority was exercised by superiors, that it said required a process of “purification.”

“A truly evangelical government, moreover, is always oriented toward service: it supports, accompanies, and helps each member to become more like the savior every day,” Leo said.

“You should not be afraid to experiment with new models of governance; on the contrary, it is good to keep in mind that the collective search for your own style of exercising authority opens up paths that not only enrich the societies and their individual members, and strengthen the sense of belonging and participation in the common mission.”

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Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press