CHICAGO (AP) — A Peruvian survivor of clergy sex abuse brought her public campaign for reforms to the American hometown of Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, saying he failed in investigating her case when he was a bishop in her home country and needs to step up now as leader of the world’s Catholics.
“I’ve been quiet since the pope has been elected,” Ana María Quispe Díaz said in Spanish at a news conference in downtown Chicago. “But I’m not planning to be quiet forever.”
She appeared with members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The advocacy group sent a letter to the pope on Thursday renewing demands for more accountability on clergy sex abuse complaints and released documents related to Díaz’s case.
The Associated Press doesn’t name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as Díaz has. She began speaking out on social media in 2023, and has faced threats and harassment in Peru because of it, SNAP officials said.
Ahead of Leo’s May election, SNAP filed a formal complaint against then-Cardinal Robert Prevost with the Vatican secretary of state, alleging he abused ecclesiastical power in his handling of two cases.
Díaz said she is a victim in one of those cases which overlapped with Prevost’s tenure as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. According to the complaint filed in March by SNAP, Prevost’s diocese …