A group representing victims sexually abused by Catholic priests alleged on Tuesday Pope Leo XIV has exhibited a “pattern of failure to properly investigate abuse claims,” including allegations that the Chicago-born pontiff mishandled multiple cases while in prominent leadership roles in the city.
“It was his responsibility to follow the meager church protocols and laws put in place,” said James Egan, a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, at a news conference. “Given his record, it doesn’t seem that (he) prioritized protecting children at all.”
A longtime missionary, Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Prevost in 1955 at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, and grew up in south suburban Dolton. Prevost, the first American pope, was largely welcomed with open arms across the city, and described as someone who “cared for people.”
He called for environmental stewardship and caring for the poor in his inaugural Mass.
SNAP, however, said it wants to bring light to the “underground story of Prevost,” urging him to adopt policies to better protect children. The group filed a complaint against Prevost with the Vatican in March outlining his alleged missteps in Chicago while heading the Midwest Augustinian religious order and later as a bishop in Peru.
The Rev. Anthony Pizzo, current provincial of the Augustinians of the Midwest, said in response to the news conference that the order remains “steadfast in our commitment to the safety and well-being of the children and youth entrusted to our care.” He said Pope Leo established protocols for promoting child protection in 2001, and that his record shows a “dedication to child safety.”
“We know that the Pope will persist in his perseverance to protect children and vulnerable persons and to respond with care and compassion to those who come forward with allegations of abuse by the Church’s ministers,” Pizzo said.
Prevost was elected as provincial prior in Chicago in 1999, and later as the order’s worldwide leader. During that time, he came under fire for his handling of two sex abuse cases involving Augustinian priests in the area.
SNAP accused Prevost of allowing the Rev. James Ray, a priest accused of abusing minors and whose ministry had been restricted since 1991, to live at the Augustinian’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park in 2000 despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school.
Ray, who was ordained in 1975 and laicized in 2012, had 13 reported accusers, according to a 2023 report from the Illinois attorney general. He has never been convicted of a sex offense.
The Vatican previously denied that Prevost approved the accommodation. Ray claimed in a Tuesday article published in the Sun-Times that Prevost “gave me permission to stay there.”
“We are not going to comment on third-party conversations that a reporter from another newspaper claims to have had with another individual, at this time,” Michael Airdo, an attorney for the Midwest Augustinians, said in a statement.
Airdo said Ray was placed at the friary from 2000 to 2002 as an “accommodation” to the late Cardinal Francis George as head of the Chicago archdiocese, and that he was “subject to restrictions” because of the abuse allegations. He said there were no allegations that Ray committed abuse while living there.
In cases where “established accusations” against a priest were brought to him, Airdo said Prevost “applied precautionary measures to remove the accused friar from active ministry, placing him in a setting where there would be no risk to minors.”
SNAP also condemned the order’s handling of allegations against the Rev. Richard McGrath, former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. McGrath served for 32 years as principal and then president of the school before retiring amid complaints that he had abused a student and had pornography on his phone. The order settled one accuser’s lawsuit for $2 million in 2023. McGrath was never criminally charged.
SNAP released a letter presumably from a parent to the Midwest Augustinians, asking them to stop McGrath from giving “back rubs to the boys at Providence.”
The group also pointed to the handling of John D. Murphy, who left the priesthood in 1993 after multiple abuse claims. The order has acknowledged it received an allegation against Murphy in 1981 but returned him to ministry after he received treatment. The order ultimately settled claims by 13 people in 2004 who said they had been molested by Murphy.
Murphy got a job in 1994 at the Shedd Aquarium, which included leading tours with children. The aquarium said it hired Murphy based on a “positive written record” from the order’s personnel director. He resigned in 2003.
“What was Prevost’s record? We see case after case of Augustinians — their abuse being covered up or ignored for years,” Egan, the SNAP spokesperson, said. “They were routinely put in roles that allowed them continued access and proximity to children.”
“Prevost, as head of the Augustinian order, had full responsibility for all of this, given the nature of his role,” Egan added. “Every case that came forward to the Augustinians was his responsibility to handle.”
SNAP called on Prevost to adopt a “zero tolerance law” into canon law and to submit to international legal agreements mandating transparency and accountability. They said he should make public statements related to sexual abuse and the cover-up by the Catholic Church.
“A child right now that’s being assaulted somewhere in the world — because that’s what’s happening right now — by some priest or some clergy, that child is more important than Pope Leo,” said Peter Isely, a founding member of SNAP.
