MADRID, Spain (AFP)—Pope Leo XIV on Monday promised victims of sexual violence by Catholic clergy that the Church would make “additional efforts” to change during a meeting in Madrid.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics spent an hour with six victims of sexual violence by the clergy on day three of a state visit to Spain where the issue has come up regularly.

Each victim recounted “painful personal experience” and put forward proposals “for making the Church’s response to such tragic cases more effective”, the Vatican said in a statement.

Leo assured them of his “commitment to ensure” that their proposals “become a foundation for additional efforts, so that the Church may truly be a safe and spiritually healthy place”.

Earlier on Monday, Leo told a gathering of Spanish bishops that faced with this “scourge”, the Church should respond “with listening, truth, justice, reparation and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.”

Ahead of the meeting at the Vatican embassy in Madrid representatives of some victim groups complained they were being excluded.

“We are disappointed that the pope, instead of listening to a sufficiently large and solid representation of victims, prefers to leave us out,” Juan Cuatrecasas, spokesman for the association Infancia Robada (Stolen Childhood), told AFP outside the embassy.

Around 200,000 minors are estimated to have suffered sexual violence by clergy in Spain since 1940, according to a 2023 report from Spain’s national ombudsman.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government and the Catholic Church in Spain signed an agreement in March to compensate victims, after years of reticence and opacity from the Church hierarchy.

Leo, 70, said on Saturday that the scandal of sexual violence was “still an open wound” for the Church.

– Unprecedented speech –

The US-born pope began Monday with an unprecedented speech to the Spanish parliament which got a lengthy standing ovation.

He urged a global response to the “tragic drama” of migration and said migrants should be given “a respectful welcome and real opportunities for integration”.

In contrast with many of his European allies, Sanchez has a relatively liberal immigration policy.

But the government is under pressure on the issue from the main conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox, now Spain’s third-largest political force.

The pope’s seven-day visit will include a trip to the Canary Islands, where he will pay tribute to the thousands of migrants who have lost their lives at sea on perilous journeys from Africa.

The Atlantic archipelago has become one of the main entry points for irregular migrants into Europe.

The pope, who like Sanchez has been harshly criticised by US President Donald Trump for his anti-war views, also called for “patient dialogue” instead of conflict and rearmament.

“Weapons may impose a temporary silence but they can never build a genuine and lasting peace,” he said, hours after an exchange of fire between Israel and Iran threatened to torpedo a fragile ceasefire.

Finally, he urged lawmakers to defend life “from conception to its natural end”, in a country whose left-wing government has legalised euthanasia under strict conditions and wants to include abortion rights in the constitution.

– Football chants –

Leo closed his Monday schedule with a meeting with the diocesan community at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium.

Around 80,000 people packed the iconic venue, singing football chants and waving the flags of Spain, the Vatican and Latin American nations.

The pope was treated to performances by singing priests and dancers pretending to play a football game. He smiled as the crowd roared at every goal scored.

He joked that the Catholic Church in Madrid had “scored a truly spectacular goal” in organising the event — to rapturous applause from the stadium.

“We are lions! We are lions!” the crowd chanted, a reference to the pope’s name in Spanish.

On Tuesday, the pope will travel to Barcelona where on Wednesday he will bless the new tower of the famed Sagrada Familia Basilica.

The visit will conclude on Friday in the Canary Islands, where the pope will be joined by Sanchez.