By Joshua McElwee
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Pope Leo met with five victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Monday in Buenos Aires, the Vatican said, in the first of several expected meetings with survivors during the pontiff's 12-day trip to South America.
Leo, the first US-born pope, is on a three-country tour through November 17. He has met with survivors during several of his foreign visits, in an effort to help repair the Church's standing after abuse scandals have tarnished its reputation.
The meeting on Monday lasted more than an hour, the Vatican said, with Leo listening to the survivors' testimonies and reaffirming his commitment to strengthen the Church's safeguarding efforts.
"The Pope spoke individually with each of them, listening to their words, their painful personal stories, and their proposals for strengthening paths of healing within the Church," said a statement.
"To them, and through them to the other victims whom it was not possible to meet, the Pope expressed his closeness and his desire to strengthen paths of protection, goodness, welcome, and support within the Church," it said.
Abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church throughout Latin America, a region that has long been a stronghold for the faith but where it has been losing ground recently to fast-growing evangelical denominations.
Ahead of Leo's visit, some survivors called for stricter accountability measures from the Church, including a global zero-tolerance policy for clergy with credible accusations of abuse.
Vatican officials have previously cited the difficulty of creating a single abuse-reporting law across all countries and argued that removing priests can put them beyond Church supervision.
Leo served as a missionary in Peru for decades before becoming pope.
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 inside the group. It was dissolved by the late Pope Francis, Leo's predecessor, in 2025.
The Vatican has said Leo will hold several meetings with survivors on the South America tour.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Kylie Madry, Brendan O'Boyle and Rosalba O'Brien)
