Pope Leo XIV met for the first time today with victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
Just a few days ago, the Vatican's commission for child protection accused senior church officials of being too slow in providing assistance to victims.
The Pope held a meeting with Ending Clergy Abuse, an international coalition of survivors, the group said.
The meeting, which included four victims and two activists, lasted about an hour, Reuters reported. One of the participants said they met at the Vatican and the pope listened attentively and took photos with them.
The Catholic Church, which has about 1,4 billion believers, has been rocked for decades by scandals around the world involving abuse and cover-ups, severely damaging its reputation and paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
An unusually harsh report by the Vatican's child protection commission, released on Thursday, criticized senior bishops for failing to provide victims with information about how their abuse reports were being handled, or whether irresponsible bishops were being sanctioned.
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