BUENOS AIRES — Pope Leo XIV met privately for more than an hour on Monday with five people who were abused by Catholic clergy or Church institutions in Argentina, the Vatican said, in the first of several expected meetings with survivors during his 12-day trip to South America. The Holy See Press Office said the Pope spoke individually with each of them, listening to their accounts and to their suggestions for strengthening healing within the Church, before he travelled to the Catholic University of Argentina for a meeting with representatives of the world of work.

Source: Holy See Press Office, Nov 9 2026

"The Pope spoke individually with every one of them, listening to their words, the painful experiences they had endured and their suggestions for strengthening paths to healing within the Church," the Holy See Press Office said. The Vatican statement added that Leo expressed his closeness to the five and, through them, to other victims it was not possible to meet, and his desire to strengthen protection, welcome and support within the Church, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026

The Associated Press reported that Leo met the survivors individually and then as a group, and that they were chosen by the local Church. The meeting came on the second day of his visit to Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, and hours after he celebrated an outdoor Mass in Buenos Aires that local authorities said drew about 2.5 million people, OSV News reported.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 9 2026

Survivors are asking for more than listening

Ahead of Leo's visit, some survivors called for stricter accountability measures from the Church, including a global zero-tolerance policy for clergy facing credible accusations of abuse, Reuters reported. Vatican officials have previously cited the difficulty of creating a single abuse-reporting law across all countries, and have argued that removing priests can put them beyond Church supervision — a position survivors' groups have long contested. The Vatican has said Leo will hold several meetings with survivors on this tour; he held similar meetings during earlier visits to Spain in June 2026 and France in September 2026.

Source: Reuters, Nov 9 2026

Argentina has never carried out the kind of nationwide investigation or public accounting of clergy abuse undertaken in the United States, Australia, France and Germany, OSV News reported, so the full scale of the crisis in the country remains unknown. Among the cases that shaped it, Father Julio Cesar Grassi, once a prominent priest who ran homes for disadvantaged children, was convicted in 2009 of sexually abusing and corrupting a minor and sentenced to 15 years. Another case, involving Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, one of Pope Francis's first episcopal appointments, drew international attention to how abuse allegations were handled under the previous pontificate.

Source: OSV News via The Catholic Sun, Nov 9 2026

Why Leo, and what happens next

Leo, the first US-born pope, served as a missionary in Peru for decades before becoming pope, and some survivors credit him with pushing for the Vatican to dissolve the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based Catholic community that faced allegations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse; it was dissolved by Pope Francis in 2025, Reuters reported. That record is part of why survivors on this tour are pressing him to go further. The tour continues in Argentina and then Peru through November 17, with further survivor meetings expected — and the test survivors have set is whether the listening in Buenos Aires turns into the tougher, uniform accountability rules they asked for before he arrived. Awaaz Punjab is not naming any of the five survivors: none was named in the Vatican statement or wire reports, and their accounts were given in private.