VaticanNews portal reports that on June 17, 2026, the usurper Robert Prevost, styling himself “Pope Leo XIV,” met with representatives of the Centro de Investigación y Formación de Protección al Menor, a Latin American organization focused on “safeguarding minors.” He declared that the protection of minors “is a mandate for everyone in the Church” and expressed his wish “that all spaces in the Church, whether physical or virtual, may truly be places for a fruitful encounter with Jesus Christ, free from fears, suspicions, or distrust.” He stated: “The encounter with Christ marks us in a positive way and leads us toward a life full of love and freedom, whereas situations of abuse do the opposite, causing traumatic wounds that condition and diminish the spiritual and human development of the person.” He invoked Christ’s warning against scandalizing the little ones (Mt 18:6) and called for “listening, truth, justice, reparation, and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.” This entire discourse, while cloaked in the language of pastoral concern, is a masterclass in modernist evasion, substituting naturalistic psychology and bureaucratic procedure for the supernatural remedy of Catholic doctrine, and thereby perpetuating the very system that enabled the crisis.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Supernatural Wounds
The language employed by Leo XIV is revealing in its theological poverty. He speaks of abuse as causing “traumatic wounds that condition and diminish the spiritual and human development of the person.” This is the language of secular psychology, not of Catholic theology. The Church has always understood that the gravest wound is not psychological trauma but sin — both the sin of the perpetrator and the sin that renders the victim’s soul spiritually dead. The true “diminishment” is not of “human development” in the naturalistic sense, but of the state of grace, the loss of which is an infinite evil surpassing all temporal suffering. By reducing the horror of abuse to its psychological and developmental consequences, Leo XIV commits the fundamental modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu: “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief” (Proposition 26). The supernatural reality of sin, grace, and the eternal destiny of souls is silently replaced by a horizontal, therapeutic framework.
The Omission of the True Cause: Modernist Apostasy
The most damning feature of this address is what it omits entirely. There is no mention — not a single word — of the theological and doctrinal roots of the abuse crisis. The crisis did not emerge in a vacuum. It is the direct, predictable fruit of the conciliar revolution that gutted Catholic moral theology, dismantled the structures of formation, and introduced a spirit of permissiveness and doctrinal confusion into every level of the so-called “Church.” As the document False Fatima Apparitions observes, the main danger facing the Church since the beginning of the 20th century is “modernist apostasy within the Church” — the “enemies within” warned against by St. Pius X. The abuse crisis is a symptom of this apostasy, not an isolated pathology. To treat the symptom while ignoring the disease is not merely incompetent; it is a deliberate strategy of diversion.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, diagnosed the root of all social and ecclesial ills with precision: “This kind of outpouring of evil has afflicted the whole world because very many have removed Jesus Christ and His most holy law from their customs, from private, family, and public life.” The abuse crisis is a direct consequence of removing Christ and His law from the interior life of clergy and faithful alike. When the indissolubility of marriage is questioned, when mortal sin is denied or minimized, when the theology of the propitiatory sacrifice is replaced by the “table of assembly,” the moral fabric of the entire institution disintegrates. Leo XIV’s silence on this causal chain is not accidental — it is structural. He is a product and guardian of the very system that produced the crisis.
“Safe Spaces” vs. the Sacramental Remedy
Leo XIV’s call for “safe spaces” and a “culture of care” is the language of corporate risk management, not of the Catholic Church. The true “safe space” for souls is the sacramental life of the Church: Confession, where sins are truly absolved; the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where grace is truly communicated; and sound doctrine, which forms consciences in the knowledge of good and evil. The post-conciliar structures have systematically undermined all three. The “new Mass” has been reduced to a communal meal that obscures the reality of sacrifice and propitiation. The sacrament of Penance has been diluted by communal absolution and the denial of the necessity of individual confession. And doctrine has been replaced by “pastoral accompaniment” and “discernment” — the very language Leo XIV employs.
The true remedy for the abuse crisis was articulated by the Church long before the modernist usurpation: sound doctrine, rigorous formation in the seminary under the authority of the true Magisterium, the practice of mortification and custody of the senses, and the unwavering application of canonical penalties for crimes against the Sixth Commandment. None of this requires “interdisciplinary organizations” or “networks of collaboration with civil institutions.” It requires the Church to be what she is: a perfect society, endowed by her Divine Founder with all the means necessary for her mission — a truth condemned by the Syllabus of Errors, which anathematized the proposition that “The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free” (Proposition 19).
The Invocation of Matthew 18:6 Without Its Consequences
Leo XIV cites Our Lord’s warning: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6). Yet the post-conciliar structures have consistently refused to apply the consequences of this warning. The “culture of care” Leo XIV promotes is precisely the culture that has protected predators, silenced victims, and prioritized institutional reputation over justice. The true application of Matthew 18:6 demands not “listening sessions” and “reparation programs” but the rigorous application of canon law, the defrocking of offenders, and the public denunciation of those who covered up crimes. The modernist “Church” has done the opposite: it has created layers of bureaucracy designed to manage the crisis, not to eradicate it.
The “Mandate for Everyone” and the Democratization of Responsibility
When Leo XIV declares that safeguarding is “a mandate for everyone in the Church,” he participates in the modernist democratization of ecclesial authority. The protection of the faithful is not a horizontal, collaborative project among “stakeholders.” It is the sacred duty of the hierarchy, flowing from the sacramental character of Holy Orders and the jurisdiction received from Christ through the Church. By diffusing this responsibility into a vague “mandate for everyone,” Leo XIV dilutes the specific, binding obligation of bishops and pastors — the very men who, in the vast majority of cases, failed catastrophically in their duty. This is the conciliar method: replace the clear lines of authority and accountability with participatory language that obscures responsibility.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Speaks
The address of Leo XIV to the Centro de Investigación y Formación de Protección al Menor is a textbook example of modernist discourse: it employs the vocabulary of concern while emptying it of supernatural content; it addresses symptoms while ignoring the disease; it invokes Scripture while refusing to draw its conclusions; and it substitutes bureaucratic procedure for the sacramental and doctrinal life of the Church. The true “safe space” for the faithful is not a program or a policy — it is the integral Catholic faith, faithfully taught, believed, and practiced. Until the structures occupying the Vatican return to this foundation — which, given their modernist constitution, they cannot and will not — the crisis they claim to address will only deepen. As Pius XI warned: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The abuse crisis is the bitter fruit of this destruction, and no amount of “safeguarding” rhetoric will heal the wound that only the restoration of true doctrine and true authority can close.
Source:
Pope Leo: Safeguarding minors 'is a mandate' for the Church (vaticannews.va)
Date: 17.06.2026