Survivor of clergy sex abuse in Peru visits pope’s hometown to call for more reforms
CHICAGO AP A Peruvian survivor of clergy sex abuse brought her constituents campaign for reforms to the American hometown of Pope Leo XIV on Thursday saying he failed in analyzing her affair when he was a bishop in her home country and requirements to step up now as leader of the world s Catholics I ve been quiet since the pope has been elected Ana Mar a Quispe D az noted in Spanish at a news conference in downtown Chicago But I m not planning to be quiet forever She appeared with members of the Survivors Organization of those Abused by Priests The advocacy group sent a letter to the pope on Thursday renewing demands for more accountability on clergy sex abuse complaints and circulated documents related to D az s incident The Associated Press doesn t name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly as D az has She began speaking out on social media in and has faced threats and harassment in Peru because of it SNAP administrators announced Ahead of Leo s May ballot SNAP filed a formal complaint against then-Cardinal Robert Prevost with the Vatican secretary of state alleging he abused ecclesiastical power in his handling of two cases D az revealed she is a victim in one of those cases which overlapped with Prevost s tenure as bishop of Chiclayo Peru According to the complaint filed in March by SNAP Prevost s diocese didn t fully investigate in April when three women accused priests Eleuterio V squez Gonz les and Ricardo Yesqu n of sexually abusing them as minors D az explained Thursday that she had spoken briefly with Prevost on the phone in telling him how she was abused by V squez Gonz les but wasn t given assurances that much could be done All three women spoke with Prevost in person in about both priests according to D az How much more damage can he do now that he is the pope she urged speaking through a translator Following a protocol set by Pope Francis But Prevost did everything he was supposed to do according to the Chiclayo diocese and Vatican including restricting the priest s ministry sending a preliminary research to the Vatican s sex crimes office offering the sufferers psychological help and suggesting they go to personnel who archived the development because it happened too long ago Pope Francis had a mixed record on responding to the clergy sexual abuse predicament bungling a major development in Chile in before reversing module ordering an review and apologizing to the casualties Ultimately it became a turning point for how he directed the church to handle cases of priests sexually abusing children for the rest of his papacy In these cases the Vatican examination uncovered Prevost acted correctly in imposing preliminary restrictions on V squez Gonz les while Peruvian leadership conducted their own civil study The Vatican office archived the scenario for lack of evidence then reopened it in after it gained traction in the media Sufferers groups are demanding an accounting from Leo Meanwhile his supporters say the Chiclayo matter is being exploited by his opponents to undermine him after he made enemies by helping shut down Sodalitium Christianae Vitae a scandal-plagued lay Catholic group in Peru No one has accused Leo of abuse himself nor of knowingly keeping verified abusers in constituents ministry which has been the biggest issue affecting the Catholic Church of late SNAP wants this accused priest removed ASAP SNAP has appealed for accused priests to be removed which D az has sought as well The organization provided copies of letters sent in July between Peruvian church officers and D az In them Peruvian church administrators say V squez Gonz les requested earlier this year to be dispensed from the obligations arising from his ordination as a priest and to leave the clerical state The process would take at least six months to complete according to the letters D az mentioned that s too long Fidel Purisaca director of communications for the Diocese of Chiclayo neither ratified nor denied V squez Gonz les request That is a confidential matter between the priest the bishop and the Vatican Dicastery he narrated The Associated Press in a WhatsApp message The diocese declared Yesqu n was too sick to continue his ministry and neither priest has commented publicly on the accusations While in Chicago D az did interviews with Spanish language media and for podcasts She also appeared at SNAP s annual conference in Pennsylvania last week Now and a mother of two young children D az mentioned she still isn t reliably ready to talk about it But she explained something changed when her daughter turned Everything came back to me about the abuse she disclosed wiping tears at times I couldn t leave her alone Since then it s been a real fight for me to be able to leave them alone Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome and Franklin Brice o in Lima Peru contributed to this document Source
