No sooner had Cardinal Robert Prevost been elected our new Pope when the usual (anti) Catholic bashers jumped into the fray.
His early critics were looking for Pope Francis II (2.0), but they sensed, quite rightly, that Pope Leo XIV may be closer to Pope Benedict XVI and Saint John Paul II.
Pope Leo XIV spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, and therefore he doesn't have a rich body of writings that detail his views on contemporary public policy and social issues.
But we know that he's strongly opposed to abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, gay marriage, and gender ideology. He's also a registered Republican.
Translation?
He's anything but a "Woke" Pope.
If there is one group that was waiting to attack our new Pope, it was SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests).
On the same day Cardinal Prevost was elected Pope, May 8, 2025, SNAP slammed him for the way he addressed accusations of priestly sexual abuse in the United States and Peru.
In 2000, when Father Prevost was the provincial supervisor in Chicago for the Augustinians, he allowed a suspended gay priest accused of sexually abusing minors to reside at a rectory not far from a Catholic school.
Father James Ray lived there with other priests and restrictions were placed on him.
Two years later, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the Dallas reforms, new guidelines dealing with clergy sexual abuse.
It was then that Ray was removed from the Augustinian residence, as well as from public ministry. He was tossed from the priesthood in 2012.
Now, it's legitimate to question the decision to place Ray near a school, but to jump to the conclusion that this was an egregious dereliction of duty is absurd.
Had Ray been put up in a hotel in a deserted part of town, Prevost’s critics would say he was left unsupervised.
The more intricate case is the one dealing with three sisters from Peru.
SNAP says, "When Prevost was Bishop of Chiclayo, three victims reported to civil authorities in 2022 after there was no movement on their canonical case filed through the diocese."
They claim he "failed to open an investigation, sent inadequate information to Rome, and that the diocese allowed the priest to continue saying mass."
None of this is true.
Here’s what happened:
In April of 2022, three sisters made accusations about two priests to church authorities about sexual abuse (inappropriate touching) dating back to 2007 when they were minors.
The bishop of Chiclayo was Msgr. Robert Prevost.
Contrary to what SNAP reports, the priest was removed from the parish where he worked and prohibited from exercising his ministerial duties.
Also contrary to what SNAP reports, Prevost met with the women in April 2022 and encouraged them to take their case to civil authorities.
Meanwhile he opened a canonical probe.
He also offered them psychological help.
In July 2022, Prevost contacted the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith after the investigation was completed. A Vatican probe found that the allegations lacked sufficient evidence to warrant further action.
Moreover, the statute of limitations had long expired. In addition, the civil investigation was also dismissed for lack of evidence and because the statute of limitations had expired.
The women weren’t satisfied and registered another complaint.
The diocese responded by sending further documentation to the Vatican. (In April 2023, Msgr. Prevost was named Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome.)
In November of 2023, Ana Maria Quispe, the oldest of the sisters, contended that both the civil and ecclesiastical courts were wrong.
She began a social media campaign to keep her account alive.
The case was then reopened by the Apostolic Administrator in Chiclayo, addressing her complaint. Victims were summoned to meet but Quispe never showed up.
Meanwhile, there was another development happening, one which SNAP is deadly silent on.
In April 2024, after Archbishop José Eguren, a member of an ultra-conservative movement, the Peruvian Sodalitium of Christian Life, was ousted — he was accused of abuse and financial wrongdoing — accusations of a Cardinal Prevost coverup percolated.
To understand why Prevost was being accused, consider the role that Fr. Ricardo Coronado played. In May 2024, Coronado, a canon lawyer, took up the women’s cases.
He was associated with this extremist movement.
In August 2024, the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference issued a public statement saying Coronado could no longer practice canon law.
He was accused of having a sexual relationship with a consenting adult.
Off-the-record comments against Coronado continued to surface from Augustinian priests.
They maintained that he "despised" Prevost and that he was guilty of “a pattern of sexually inappropriate and aggressive behavior.”
In January 2025, Pope Francis and Cardinal Prevost met with one of the group’s abuse victims. Weeks before he died, the Pope dissolved the movement.
Pedro Salinas, a noted Peruvian journalist who knows this issue well.
He wrote that "The campaign of disinformation and discrediting Robert Prevost’s career has always come from the source of Robert Prevost, Archbishop Eguren."
Salinas is correct. The critics of Pope Leo XIV are bent on discrediting him. They are looking for dirt not simply to disable him, but to weaken the voice of the Catholic Church. They will not succeed, but their efforts are nonetheless despicable.
(Related stories and articles may be found here.)
Dr. Bill Donohue is president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. A former Heritage Foundation Bradley resident scholar, he's authored 11 books on civil liberties, social issues, and religion. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. His new book, "Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis," was released in June, 2024. Read Bill Donohue's Reports — More Here.
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