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Pope Francis is credited with addressing the issue more strongly than his predecessors did, but clerical abuse remains a ruinous issue for the Roman Catholic Church.
May 5, 2025Updated 11:14 a.m. ET
Cardinals are not the only ones who have arrived in Rome for the conclave to pick Pope Francis’ successor.
Since Francis’ death last month, survivors of sexual abuse and those who monitor the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of abuse cases have also arrived, hoping to persuade cardinals to make the issue a priority when considering who should next be pope.
“I think it’s very important to remind them that we will not go away,” said Matthias Katsch, a Berlin-based board member of Ending Clergy Abuse, an advocacy group that represents survivors from 20 countries.
Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, said on Friday that during pre-conclave meetings this past week the cardinals had discussed sexual abuse in the church, and considered it a “wound to be kept open” so that awareness of the problem remained alive and concrete paths for healing can be identified.
When Francis was elected in 2013, he inherited a church profoundly unsettled by the clerical sex abuse crisis, which had damaged its reputation and in some places was depleting its pews. Twelve years later, critics describe his legacy on the issue as mixed.
Francis is credited with taking some steps that were decidedly stronger than those of his two predecessors, who caught the first wave of outrage when the clergy abuse scandal exploded. But Francis stumbled, too, and clerical abuse remains a ruinous issue that his successor will inherit.
