Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

Prevost reportedly allowed that cleric to continue in his role despite the allegations, though the Augustinian order later paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to the abuse survivor and in December booted the priest from the order.