Survivors of clergy abuse are calling for an investigation into Pope Leo XIV during his tenure as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, alleging he played a role in covering up how priests and clerics accused of sexual assault were allowed to continue their roles in the Catholic Church. Recordings of a meetin g between the Rev. Giampiero Gambaro with Ana María Quispe Díaz and others who had accused Peruvian clerics of assault revealed the man they accused had confessed to church officials years ago, and has now been granted an "honorable discharge" by Pope Leo XIV.The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests filed an updated vos estis lux mundi complaint in response, the church’s pathway for documenting accusations of abuse or mishandling of cases. The group said these cases were representative of "a system that allows bishops and cardinals to control and close cases that implicate themselves.""We cannot have another pope in this institutional system who has covered up child sex crimes," said Robert Isely, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse from Wisconsin and SNAP founder, at a Thursday news conference in Chicago. "I've been at this 35 years, and the only way things change is when there are consequences and accountability. ... We don't want this to happen to another child."Vatican officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Díaz, of Chiclayo, Peru, alleges she was abused by a priest when she was 9 years old. Her two sisters were assaulted by the same priest. In April 2022, she said, the three of them brought their allegations to Pope Leo XIV, who was then known as Robert Prevost and serving as Bishop of Chiclayo, though he never opened an investigation.The Vatican ended its investigation into the alleged abuse in 2023 after civil authorities said the allegations were beyond the statute of limitations, according to The New York Times. The Vatican told the paper that the pope had done more than was required in at least one of the cases. But the new Bishop of Chiclayo said the case was “improperly handled” and opened an investigation. Related Victims group claims Pope Leo XIV has a history of mishandling cases of sexual abuse committed by priests Peruvian woman who alleges Pope Leo XIV mishandled her sexual abuse case visits Chicago The new evidence shows that church officials admitted the Rev. Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles, known as Father Lute, had confessed to removing his clothes, making sexually inappropriate comments and touching himself and the victims. The Rev. Gambaro said Prevost’s “preliminary investigation was very poorly conducted” — describing it as a "joke" — and that “the church’s statute of limitations is clearly quite different.” He adds that an unknown church official, believed by the victims to be Prevost, “signed a letter saying the [canonical] process should not be carried out.”“This is the first time I’ve dealt with this type of situation where they invoke the statute of limitations under civil law in this way,” Gambaro says in the recording.The Rev. Lute and the Rev. Ricardo Yesquén Paiva, who Díaz says also assaulted her as a child, continued to be shown in Facebook photos serving in church roles despite Prevost’s claims they had been removed, according SNAP's analysis of social media. One Facebook photo showed Prevost standing with the Rev. Paiva at his birthday party in 2023 — three years after the allegations surfaced — with both dressed in clerical garb. In a January 2023 photo posted on Facebook, Pope Leo XIV (second from left) stands next to the Rev. Ricardo Yesquén Paiva, dressed in clerical garb, at a birthday celebration for the priest three years after he was accused of sexually assaulting a young girl. Provided It came less than a year before Prevost’s claims the accused cleric couldn’t be investigated and had already exited ministry due to a neurological condition."It is incomprehensible that instead of seeking the truth and repairing the victims, the decision was made to close the case through a papal grace that frees the abuser from facing the responsibility that corresponds to him, leaving us in a vulnerable situation with no reparation, where the only thing offered to us is payment for therapy," Diáz said in a statement.Contributing: Kaitlin Washburn ...read more read less