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Individuals who endured abuse by Catholic clergy have voiced renewed hope following their first meeting with the new Pope at the Vatican.

Gemma Hickey, who leads Ending Clergy Abuse, stated that the pontiff's choice to engage with them so soon in his leadership sent a strong message about his commitment to tackling the problem.

Global Zero-Tolerance Policy Pushed

The group is pushing for a global zero-tolerance policy that would permanently remove any priest who confesses to or is found guilty of sexually abusing a minor. This policy has already been adopted in the US.

The Pope acknowledged that there is "opposition in certain regions of the world" to this proposal, according to the representative.

"We were all being realistic when we acknowledged that there is pushback," they stated.

Inherited Issue

The current pontiff, who assumed the role in May, has inherited this longstanding issue that has plagued the Church for many years.

Previous efforts to address the situation included an historic summit on child abuse within the Church and revisions to canon law to explicitly criminalize sexual abuse.

Personal Connection

For the representative, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, the drive for worldwide adoption of the measure is personal. The Canadian activist shared they were victimized by a priest who was later moved between different parishes.

"Hopefully this will set the tone for his papacy, because we want to work with him," Hickey stated. "Both sides share the same goal, we want to eliminate abuse by religious officials."

Historic Encounter

Multiple members of the coalition, which includes survivors and supporters from over thirty countries, engaged with the Pontiff in his official residence.

The meeting, initially planned for a brief period, extended to a sixty minutes, during which the Pope "primarily heard to us," according to Hickey.

The Pope was described as "quite empathetic" when listening to the story of a woman victimized at a church-run institution for native youth in North America.

Hickey added the Pope was "compassionate" about their personal experience and appeared "very humble, humorous, and very down to earth."

"Victims have consistently sought a voice in discussions and I didn't perceive like he was giving us lip service," Hickey stated. "I believed like he was sincere, practical, and very open and keen to work with us."

Canon Law Reforms

The organization is hoping that changes to canon law will facilitate the adoption of the strict approach worldwide.

They have spoken with experts and compiled documents that they plan to submit to the pontiff.

"He seemed interested in reviewing it," they noted.

Responsibility Highlighted

A recently released Vatican-commissioned report emphasized the "necessity of a streamlined protocol for the resignation and/or removal of Church leaders or staff in cases of misconduct or negligence."

The document also noted that victims consistently emphasized the "urgent need for church leaders and major superiors to be made responsible for inaction and concealment."

Moving Forward

The representative shared they informed the pontiff at the beginning of their discussion: "This represents as much a risk for him to participate in a dialogue as it was for us."

After the encounter, they expressed optimism for future change.

"We realise it's not something that's going to be resolved quickly, but at the end of the day, uniting and building a relationship and persisting to strengthen that relationship is a step in the right direction," Hickey commented.

Hickey concluded that they told with Pope Leo: "Just because it's a dark chapter, I feel like we can change how the narrative ends - he valued that."