Pope Leo XIV ‘seemed the opposite direction’ when faced with kid intercourse abuse allegations in opposition to priest in his Chicago church

A pacesetter of a bunch of priest abuse survivors that attempted to derail Robert Prevost’s possibilities of turning into pope has ‘an ironic sense of happiness’ that the Catholic Church not noted its warnings.

Prevost’s variety as Leo XIV, the 267th pope, will shine way more mild on hidden sexual abuse through Catholic clergy, hopes Eduardo Lopez de Casas.

‘For them to selected a cardinal who has hidden sexual abuse and is American simplest signifies that this particular person will probably be scrutinized from left to proper,’ Lopez de Casas, a sufferer of clergy abuse and nationwide vice chairman of the Survivors Network of the ones Abused through Priests (SNAP) instructed DailyMail.com.

‘That’s useful for sufferers in every single place as a result of now we have this pope who will probably be beneath the general public eye in the case of issues he was once concerned with previously.’

The cardinals who supported the brand new pope on this week’s secret conclave pushed aside the American cardinal’s document of taking a look previous sexual abuse allegations in and round Chicago and, extra not too long ago, in Peru.

‘You cannot quilt up sexual abuse and be a just right priest,’ Lopez de Casas mentioned. 

‘Staying silent is a sin. It’s now not what God desires us to do. Jesus desires us to prevent these items, now not make a heathy lawn for sexual abuse to develop.’ 

SNAP and different teams had made the 135 eligible cardinals who decided on him smartly acutely aware of Prevost’s state of being inactive at the allegations.

Crowds thronged in St. Peter’s Square to listen to Pope Leo’s first phrases as pontiff

Eduardo Lopez de Casas hopes that Pope Leo’s election will shine a brighter mild on sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church

‘He was once prime on our watchlist at SNAP to verify he was once now not decided on for pope,’ added Lopez de Casas, 65. ‘But now, right here we’re.

Lopez de Casas grew up in Galveston, Texas, and says he was once abused through academics within the public faculty machine there. 

His mom, suspecting one thing had came about to him however not able to pinpoint it, despatched him to a parish priest in Galveston, who made him display to him what the academics had performed to him. 

‘I used to be then abused through the priest,’ he instructed DailyMail.com.

Although he was once vocal about it as a child, he mentioned his folks weren’t local English audio system and have been by no means suggested to file it to government.

Among different criticisms, Prevost has been slammed for now not having opened a proper church investigation into alleged sexual abuse performed through two monks within the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, which he led from 2014 to 2023.

The Pillar, a Catholic information outlet that investigates the church, has reported on accusations that the diocese mishandled allegations through Ana Maria Quispe and her two more youthful sisters, Juana Mercedes and Aura Teresa, that Father Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles relationship again to 2007. Allegations have been additionally made in opposition to some other priest, The Pillar reported.

As Cardinal Prevost, Pope Leo visited Providence Catholic High School at the outskirts of Chicago

Newly elected American Pope Leo XIV got here from humble beginnings in southern Chicago suburbs the place, as newly ordained Rev. Robert Prevost he met Pope John Paul II in 1982

The alleged sufferers mentioned in a remark that, beneath Prevosts’s watch in 2022, the Diocese downplayed main points and documentation in their allegations that it despatched to the Vatican, deliberately fighting the church from taking motion in opposition to the monks accused. They allege the church blew off their reviews.

‘The allegations that Prevost engaged in protecting up abuse reviews are specifically vital, since Prevost’s present put up as head of the Dicastery for Bishops oversees lawsuits and investigations of episcopal negligence in abuse circumstances world wide,’ the Pillar wrote in a September 2024 article.

The outlet reported that Prevost had met with the accusers in April 2022, and inspired them to take their case to the civil government whilst the church investigated. 

That probe reportedly ‘was once shelved for loss of proof and as the statute of obstacles had expired’.

Other criticisms that Prevost lost sight of sexual abuse stem from Chicago, the place he grew up.

As reported through the Will County Gazette, which covers suburbs southwest of the town, Prevost allowed an Augustinian priest, Father James Ray, to are living on the St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park regardless of Ray having been yanked from ministering to the general public 9 years previous as a result of accusations of sexually abusing minors. 

Prevost it seems that did not notify the heads of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic faculty, an fundamental faculty part a block from the friary as a result of, the church mentioned on the time, Ray was once intended to be intently monitored within the friary.

As reported through the Will County Gazette, which covers suburbs southwest of the town, Prevost allowed an Augustinian priest, Father James Ray, to are living on the St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park regardless of Ray having been yanked from ministering to the general public 9 years previous as a result of accusations of sexually abusing minors. 

Ray remained in shut proximity to the varsity for 2 years till relocated beneath new regulations handed through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to stay monks accused of preying on minors bodily some distance clear of youngsters.

Cardinal Prevost arrived on the ultimate congregation assembly ahead of the conclave on May 3, now not understanding he would quickly be the brand new pope

Cardinal Prevost led a provider in St. Peter’s Square in March to hope for Pope Francis whose well being was once failing

One of his ultimate public acts ahead of being elected Pope was once to wait the Palm Sunday Mass within the Vatican on April 13

Pope Leo XIV had a spiritual upbringing in a old fashioned 1,200-square-foot brick house in Dolton, Illinois 

Another disgraced priest additionally lived on the friary all the way through his watch.

Father Richard McGrath, who was once ousted because the longtime predominant and president of Providence Catholic High School within the Chicago suburb of New Lenox after a scholar reported seeing nude pictures of boys on his telephone. 

Former Providence scholar Robert Krankvich accused McGrath of forcing him to accomplish more than a few intercourse acts whilst he was once a kid. Krankvich went directly to fight with dependancy for a lot of his grownup existence.

After achieving a $2 million agreement with the Catholic church, Krankvich died in April of addiction-related well being problems.

‘Money does not deliver happiness . . . it gave him no closure,’ his father, additionally named Robert Krankvich, instructed the Chicago Sun-Times.

As a part of its paintings highlighting applicants for the papacy, whom it says have lined up sexual abuse, SNAP wrote a letter to the Vatican slamming what it known as Prevost’s state of being inactive in Peru and Chicago.

Prevost’s management position within the Midwest Augustinians from 1998 to 2014 incorporated overseeing the highschool. As Lopez de Casas – who labored for the Galveston, Texas diocese for 18 years – tells it, Prevost allowed McGrath to prey on scholars there a number of years ahead of he was once ousted in 2017.

 Meanwhile, Providence Catholic High School maintains shut ties with the brand new pope. Its present president, Father John Merkelis, went to seminary with Prevost in Holland, Michigan, within the early 70s, and Prevost has given mass on the faculty. He describes him as ‘very clever, delicate, pastoral and all the time probably the most easiest in his elegance.’

‘It is simply superb information,’ he instructed DailyMail.com in a while after information of Prevost’s variety on Thursday. ‘We’re all simply beaming right here.’

‘It’s so cool to look the children so excited,’ added Theresa Thormeyer, the executive assistant within the faculty’s dean’s administrative center.