OPEN LETTER TO POPE LEO XIV

Your Holiness Pope Leo XIV,

I write to you not as a theologian or canon lawyer, but as a voice for victims, for truth — and for countless children silenced by the Catholic Church’s misuse of secrecy, power, and privilege.

For decades, the Vatican has protected perpetrators of child sexual abuse through internal secrecy over justice — under pontifical secrecy, knowingly moving known abusers between parishes, exposing more children to harm. These actions — documented in civil inquiries, royal commissions, and Kieran Tapsell’s “Potiphar’s Wife”— cannot be denied.

Your papacy offers a critical turning point. You have the power to begin a new chapter.

I respectfully urge you to:

• enforce the classification of child sexual abuse as a grave crime with mandatory, permanent penalties;

• extend the same penalties to bishops and clergy who conceal or cover up these crimes — and explicitly define such cover-ups as grave crimes;

• introduce a one-strike policy: if a priest is found guilty of abuse, they must be dismissed from the clerical state;

• remove all protections of pontifical secrecy in abuse cases — past, present, and future;

• support full cooperation with civil justice systems in every country.

These actions will not undo the past, but will show the Church no longer tolerates the intolerable.

Justice demands it. Survivors deserve it. Jesus died for it.

With respect and hope for a renewed Church,

Joolsmagools®️ 👫 B4 ⛪️

11th May 2025