Pope's visit to Peru: Wretched are the abused

Seven years ago, two almost 60-year-old women from his congregation contacted Bishop Reinhold Nann. They confessed to him that they had been raped as 9-year-old girls by a now-deceased priest. The encounter has left a deep mark on Reinhold Nann to this day: “Out of shame, the women waited for 50 years before they dared to talk about it.”

Reinhold Nann, 66, a native German who has worked first as a Catholic priest and then as a bishop since 1991, gave up his episcopate in 2024 so that he could marry his partner. Today he continues his work and research on the topic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as an author and activist.

In the Peruvian Bishops' Conference, Nann also worked with Robert Prevost, the bishop of the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo. At the time, Prevost was responsible for contacts with victims of sexual abuse in the Peruvian Catholic Church. In 2025 he was elected leader of all Catholics worldwide. From November 11th to 16th he will be visiting his old homeland of Peru as Pope Leo XIV.

The fact that there is manifest sexual abuse in the Catholic Church became apparent for the first time in Peru in 2015 when the machinations of the Catholic lay movement Sodalitium were uncovered. The sect recruited its members primarily from the white-skinned middle and upper classes of large cities. After a 2023 investigation, it was dissolved by Pope Francis. Today their victims are organized in Peru as “Sobrevivientes” (in German: survivors).

The many cases of abuse by church officials in remote Andean and Amazon villages or in the poor districts of large cities are still waiting to be dealt with. Reinhold Nann started in his book "Rat's Nest of Abusers or Safe Church Space" and documented 57 cases of abuse in which there was a public report.

"There are countless cases that are not yet known. The victims are too ashamed because they could not imagine that a highly respected spiritual dignitary would commit such crimes," says Nann. And when a case is reported to the church, the church too often covers up the crime with hush money.

As bishop, Leo XIV was highly valued by the victims because he listened to them and supported their concerns. The Vatican said unofficially before his trip to Latin America that he also wanted to meet with the victims during his visit to Peru. But to date, a meeting with him has not found its way into the official agenda, nor has a meeting with the victims of the recent human rights violations of the last government under Dina Boluarte.

According to Nann, it is still possible that there will be an unofficial meeting with victims of abuse in the nunciature or in Leo's old diocese of Chiclayo. “But such meetings are often just a fig leaf that have no consequences for the structural changes that the Catholic Church needs to make to prevent future abuse.”