SNAP to Pope Leo: “You could end the abuse crisis, you’re choosing not to.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2025
Pope Leo’s emphasis on “false accusations” and “priests’ rights” in his first public interview, comes in the face of damning evidence of his own failure to follow canon law and the Peruvian bishops’ abuse policy. His record shows not just ignorance or insensitivity, but a rejection of zero tolerance for sexual violence and cover-up at the very moment he claims to uphold it.
The message to abuse survivors is to expect the status quo: a church that continues to shield known offenders, refuses to discipline bishops who facilitate abuse by keeping rapists and abusers in power, and a church that will use every tool at their disposal to preserve this system.
SNAP Board President Shaun Dougherty responds:
“We wouldn't have to keep focusing on this crisis if Pope Leo would just do the right thing. Enact a global zero tolerance law, release the criminal evidence in the Vatican archives, and stop spending millions on attorneys and lobbyists to fight every effort to pass laws that allow survivors to seek justice. Until these basic steps are taken, the pope’s continued failure to act will ensure that this crisis remains front and center, as it should.
When Pope Leo says not to expect major reforms, it is a rejection of survivors. It’s an abandonment of children by the church. The failure to stop abuse, to remove offenders from positions where they can continue committing sexual violence, is not just a moral failure - it’s a death sentence. We’ve lost too many friends to suicide and despair.“
SNAP Global Advocacy Chair Peter Isely adds:
“What the world needs - and what survivors desperately need - is a binding and universal zero tolerance church law that upholds the fundamental human rights and protections of children and others against rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy. The Catholic Church has created a global catastrophe through its careful maintenance of a system that has allowed clergy to abuse children and vulnerable people around the world with impunity. The Vatican has ignored every major international call for accountability, including from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee Against Torture.”
September marks the 14th anniversary of SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights’ filing of a case with the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, urging the ICC to investigate the Vatican for crimes against humanity. SNAP’s subsequent report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and report to the Committee Against Torture (CAT) spurred UN inquiries that resulted in a conclusion that widespread sexual violence within the Catholic church amounts to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited by the Convention Against Torture.
The Holy See has since failed to implement the CRC’s 2014 recommendations which include canon law reform, an “independent mechanism” for monitoring children’s rights and the “conduct of the Catholic hierarchy” in managing sexual abuse, “transparent sharing” of archives related to management of sexual abuse, and immediate removal of child sexual abusers from ministry.
SNAP Spokesperson Sarah Pearson adds:
“Survivors brought their evidence to the highest international bodies, and those bodies affirmed what we’ve known for decades: that the Catholic Church has perpetrated and perpetuated widespread sexual violence amounting to torture. When Pope Leo says not to expect any major reforms regarding church doctrine related to sexuality, he is saying, ‘Let’s leave this system in place.’”
On the day of Pope Leo’s election, SNAP said to the new pope, “You can end the abuse crisis - the only question is, will you?” Pope Leo has given us his answer.