Next Pope Must Do More
Title: After Francis, advocates say the next pope must do more for sexual assault survivors
Author: Madeleine Wedesweiler with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
Publisher: SBS News
Date: 22Apr2025
As billions around the world reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis, some are feeling re-traumatised by the Catholic Church and angry at the ways the institution hurt them.
Advocates have argued the next pope must do better than Pope Francis to combat the scourge of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and urged the church’s head to enforce a zero tolerance policy and mandatory reporting to local authorities.
Judy Courtin is a senior lawyer and scholar who has spent decades representing and advocating for victims of sexual abuse within Australian institutions, including the Catholic Church.
She told SBS News that for some victim/survivors of Catholic institutional child sex crimes: “the pope’s death serves as a trigger of their life-long suffering and trauma”.
“The pope’s death is a reminder of how the Catholic Church failed them not only as children but also now as adults.
“It is a reminder of how the Catholic Church continues to re-abuse and re-traumatise survivor/victims by using the black letter of the law to further crush them.”
Courtin said survivors in Australia suffered a significant setback in seeking legal redress from the Catholic Church last year.
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