MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Watchdog publishes a list of 77 clergy accused of abuse in Peru ahead of the Pope’s visit

US-based organisation Bishop Accountability on Thursday presented in Lima a list of 77 members of Peru’s Catholic clergy publicly accused of sexually abusing minors, days before Pope Leo XIV, who lived in the country for more than two decades, begins his tour of South America. Victims and the organisation called on the pontiff to take concrete steps, including setting up a truth commission.

The list, published on the website of the organisation, which documents sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church, includes priests, brothers, seminarians and consecrated laypeople who have worked in Peruvian parishes and schools, as well as Church officials accused of allegedly covering up complaints. It is based mainly on the book Den of abusers or safe Church?, published this year by Reinaldo Nann, a former bishop of Caravelí in southern Peru who has left the priesthood. Those on the list have been publicly accused; not all have been tried or convicted.

“The Peruvian Church is stubbornly putting children at risk by covering up for abusers,” said Bishop Accountability co-director Anne Barrett Doyle. José Enrique Escardó, president of the Peruvian Survivors’ Network and one of the first to denounce the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, the Catholic movement Pope Francis suppressed in early 2025 after abuse allegations, said “victims need comprehensive reparation” and that “the most important thing is prevention”.

The organisations made three requests to the Pope: that bishops and religious superiors in Peru publish the names of clergy accused of abusing minors; that a Truth Commission be set up to investigate the cases; and that a universal zero-tolerance rule be enshrined in canon law.

Leo XIV, who holds Peruvian nationality, was bishop of Chiclayo and chaired the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference Commission for the Protection of Minors, where he worked alongside Nann. According to the former bishop, the current Pope was then “more open to listening to victims than the rest of the bishops”, although he considers him “too cautious a man” who is not driving change fast enough. According to El País, the Vatican has announced that the Pope will meet victims during his visit, although the meeting is not yet on the official schedule. There has been no response from the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference to the list.

The Pope will visit Uruguay and Argentina before arriving in Peru, where he will stay from November 11 to 17.