MADRID, Spain – On the third day of his seven-day official visit to Spain, Pope Leo XIV held a pivotal hour-long meeting Monday with six survivors of clergy-perpetrated sexual violence, pledging sweeping new institutional changes to address the long-running abuse crisis that has shaken the Catholic Church in the country.
According to an official statement released by the Vatican, each survivor shared harrowing, deeply personal accounts of their abuse and put forward actionable recommendations to strengthen the Church’s response to these devastating cases. Pope Leo affirmed his unwavering commitment to turning these proposals into concrete action, with the goal of transforming the Church into a truly safe and spiritually healthy space for all.
Earlier the same day, speaking to a gathering of Spanish bishops, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics framed clergy sexual abuse as a persistent “scourge” that demands a response rooted in active listening, radical transparency, accountability, meaningful reparations, and a strengthened culture of prevention and care.
The meeting, held at the Vatican’s embassy in Madrid, was not without controversy: representatives from major victim advocacy groups spoke out ahead of the gathering to decry their exclusion from the talks. “We are disappointed that the pope, instead of listening to a sufficiently large and solid representation of victims, prefers to leave us out,” Juan Cuatrecasas, spokesperson for leading survivor association Infancia Robada (Stolen Childhood), told AFP outside the embassy.
The scope of the abuse crisis in Spain is staggering: a 2023 report from Spain’s national ombudsman estimated that roughly 200,000 minors have been sexually abused by Catholic clergy in the country since 1940. After decades of institutional silence and opacity from the Spanish Catholic hierarchy, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government reached a landmark compensation agreement with the national Church in March of this year. Pope Leo has already acknowledged the ongoing damage of the scandal, calling it a “still an open wound” for the global Church during remarks Saturday at the start of his visit.
Monday’s schedule opened with a historic, unprecedented address to the Spanish parliament that earned the pope a lengthy standing ovation from lawmakers. In his remarks, he called for coordinated global action to address what he termed the “tragic drama” of global migration, arguing that migrants deserve “a respectful welcome and real opportunities for integration.”
The pope’s stance aligns with the relatively liberal immigration policy pursued by Sanchez’s left-wing government, which has faced fierce political pressure on the issue from the main opposition conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox, now the third-largest political force in Spain.
Later in the trip, Pope Leo will travel to the Canary Islands, a major Atlantic entry point for irregular migrants crossing from Africa to Europe, where he will honor the thousands of migrants who have died during dangerous sea crossings. The closing leg of the visit will include a public appearance alongside Sanchez.
The U.S.-born pontiff, who has joined Sanchez in facing harsh criticism from former U.S. President Donald Trump over his anti-war positions, also used his parliamentary address to push for diplomatic dialogue over armed conflict and rearmament. Just hours after a cross-border exchange of fire between Israel and Iran threatened to collapse a fragile regional ceasefire, Pope Leo noted: “Weapons may impose a temporary silence but they can never build a genuine and lasting peace.”
He also closed his parliamentary remarks with a call for lawmakers to defend life “from conception to its natural end” – a rebuke of the Sanchez government’s progressive social policies, which include legalized euthanasia under regulated conditions and a push to enshrine abortion rights in the Spanish constitution.
To wrap up his full day of engagements Monday, Pope Leo met with Madrid’s diocesan community at Real Madrid’s iconic Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The 80,000-person crowd packed into the world-famous venue, breaking into football chants and waving flags of Spain, the Vatican, and multiple Latin American nations.
The pontiff was treated to performances by singing priests and a comedic dance skit mimicking a football match, smiling as the crowd roared after each staged goal. He leaned into the lighthearted moment, joking that the Madrid diocese had “scored a truly spectacular goal” in organizing the mass gathering, drawing raucous applause from the crowd. Many attendees chanted “We are lions! We are lions!” – a playful nod to “Leo,” the Spanish word for lion, matching the pope’s first name.
On Tuesday, Pope Leo will travel to Barcelona, where he will bless the completed new tower of Antoni Gaudí’s world-famous Sagrada Familia Basilica on Wednesday. The visit will conclude Friday in the Canary Islands.
