Several associations representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy protested their exclusion from a meeting with Pope Leo XIV in Madrid, as the pontiff met privately with just six survivors and pledged to strengthen the Church’s response to abuse.
The hour-long meeting took place on Monday at the Vatican embassy in Madrid, continuing the tradition of popes meeting abuse survivors during foreign visits. According to the Vatican, the six participants shared their personal experiences and offered recommendations on how the Catholic Church could improve its handling of abuse cases.
Afterwards, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope had listened ‘with affection and attention’ and assured the survivors of his closeness and that of the wider Church.
‘The pope listened with affection and attention, assured them of his closeness — and that of the entire church community — and pledged his commitment to ensuring that the suggestions received serve as a foundation for further efforts, so that the church may truly be a safe and spiritually healthy place where wounds find comfort and healing,’ Bruni said.
However, several victims’ organisations said they had not been informed about the meeting and were excluded from participating. A small protest was held outside the Vatican embassy, formally known as the Apostolic Nunciature.
‘Not being invited is a blow,’ Juan Cuatrecasas, spokesman for the Infancia Robada (Stolen Childhood) association, told Spanish media ahead of the meeting.
‘I think we deserve a leading role. We have for many years been one of the associations leading the way’ in denouncing child abuse, he added.
Cuatrecasas said the audience with the pope was attended by victims assisted by the Repara project of the Archdiocese of Madrid, which he argued presented an incomplete picture of the abuse crisis.
‘The reality the pope will see is a completely skewed reality,’ he said.
Following the meeting, Cuatrecasas reiterated his criticism, while welcoming the fact that some victims had been able to speak directly with the pontiff.
‘Our associations are pleased that a group of victims from the reparation plan can be heard by the pope, but they do not represent all the victims, and deep down they are being used by the church, by the bishops conference, to clean up the image of a Spanish church that has never been able to live up to its victims,’ he said.
Another survivor, Miguel Hurtado (main image), who says he was abused by a priest at the age of 16 at the Abbey of Montserrat near Barcelona, criticised the process leading up to the meeting. ALSO READ: Montserrat monk was a ‘sexual predator and paedophile’.
Speaking to Radio4, Hurtado said the encounter was ‘strictly controlled by the Catholic hierarchy so that it doesn’t look bad and does not affect the figure of the pope and the message they want to convey’.
Hurtado warned that Leo could face protests when he visits Montserrat later in his trip.
The Vatican had declined to provide details of the meeting beforehand, saying it would not release information until afterwards out of ‘respect for the victims’.
During his flight to Madrid on Saturday, Leo acknowledged that abuse remains one of the Church’s most painful challenges.
The pope said the issue was ‘still an open wound’ for the Church.
On Monday, he also urged Spain’s bishops to strengthen efforts to support survivors and prevent future abuse.
‘Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation,’ Leo said. ‘Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing.’
Earlier, King Felipe VI praised Leo’s approach to the issue during a welcoming ceremony in Madrid, commending his ‘clarity and firmness’ and saying it was ‘essential in the process of healing and reparation for the damage inflicted’.
The meeting came as Spain continues its difficult reckoning with decades of clerical abuse and allegations of institutional cover-ups. The scandal gained prominence following investigations by the newspaper El País and intensified after the publication of a major report by Spain’s national ombudsman in 2023. ALSO READ: Spain’s ombudsman has heard testimonies from 445 victims of church sex abuse.
That 800-page report, based on a survey of 8,000 people and an examination of 487 documented cases, estimated that more than 200,000 minors – and potentially hundreds of thousands more people overall – may have suffered abuse by Catholic clergy since the 1940s.
Spain’s bishops disputed the scale of those estimates, saying their own investigation had identified 728 sexual abusers within the Church since 1945. ALSO READ: Spain’s Catholic Church discloses 101 abuse claims this year, under its new compensation system.
In response to growing public outrage, Spain’s left-leaning government and the Catholic Church signed an agreement in March establishing a compensation system for victims of clerical sexual abuse. The programme, designed for cases too old to be prosecuted, involves both Church and state participation and gives the government the final say on compensation awards. ALSO READ: Spain signs landmark church-state deal to compensate victims of clergy abuse.
The system, which is not legally binding, has received both praise and scepticism from survivors and advocacy groups. Victims have one year to submit claims.
The encounter in Madrid was the first known occasion on which Pope Leo has met abuse survivors during an overseas visit since becoming pontiff. However, it is not the first time he has worked directly with victims. As bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, the former Robert Prevost served as a contact point for abuse survivors on behalf of the Peruvian bishops’ conference and became closely involved in investigations into the disgraced Catholic movement Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which Pope Francis formally suppressed last year.
Since becoming pope, Leo has repeatedly stressed the importance of listening to victims while also insisting that the rights of accused priests must be respected. In a recent encyclical, he said the pursuit of justice required ‘just reparation’ for victims, including those affected not only by sexual abuse but also by spiritual, economic, institutional and power-related abuses.
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🔸Juan Cuatrecasas, president i portaveu de l’Associació Nacional Infància Robada, denúncia que l’Església es vol “rentar la cara” després del “fracàs” dels plans de reparació.
— RTVE Notícies (@rtvenoticies) June 9, 2026
🗣️ “Les víctimes han estat maltractades, menystingudes i revictimitzades” | @cafedidees_rtve pic.twitter.com/U38jmNA6wg
#VisitaPapaRTVE | Hablamos con Miguel Hurtado, víctima de abusos en la Iglesia y portavoz de Reparación Integral Ya https://t.co/aIFRnVyDHi#LaHora9J pic.twitter.com/YpzonPS5Cq
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