Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the American prelate elected on Thursday to succeed Francis as Pope Leo XIV, was hailed in St. Peter’s Square for becoming the first US‑born pontiff.
Yet survivor‑advocacy groups and Catholic media quickly resurfaced allegations that he failed to act decisively against accused priests during earlier assignments in Illinois and Peru, raising questions about how the new pope will address clergy sexual abuse going forward.
Prevost, 69, led the Augustinians’ Midwest province in Chicago from 1998 to 2010 and was later the order’s worldwide head. During that span, Rev. Richard McGrath remained president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox despite long‑standing complaints that he had abused at least one student and kept child pornography images on his phone.
An investigative report by the Chicago Sun‑Times in June 2024 noted that the Augustinians paid a $2 million settlement to former student Robert Krankvich but omitted McGrath’s name from their public list of credibly accused clerics, and the newspaper said Prevost never explained why the priest was left in his post.
McGrath was finally dismissed from the order this week, according to a statement quoted by the local news site Patch. The outlet added that Augustinian officials, asked what Prevost knew, “declined to provide details.”
Not an isolated incident
Survivors and their advocates say the Illinois case was not isolated. Three sisters in Chiclayo, Peru, allege that Fr. Eleuterio Vásquez González abused them between 2007 and 2015 and that Prevost—then apostolic administrator and later bishop of the diocese—promised in 2022 to open a canonical investigation but never produced documents proving he did so.
The National Catholic Reporter reported last September that the diocese denied a cover‑up and claimed all files were forwarded to the Vatican’s doctrinal office, but the alleged victims insist no decree has surfaced and say the priest has continued celebrating Mass.
A week after that television exposé, the Diocese of Chiclayo issued an eight‑point press release asserting that Prevost suspended Vásquez and sent the case to Rome in July 2022. The Catholic agency Zenit published the statement in full, but it, too, did not include any investigative decree.
On April 30, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) presented a Vos estis lux mundi complaint in Rome, accusing Prevost of “actions or omissions intended to obstruct a civil or canonical investigation” in both Chicago and Chiclayo. In its media release, the group said electing him pope “adds insult to injury for survivors whose cases he ignored.”
Crux, a Vatican‑watching outlet, reported last month that SNAP’s filing names six cardinals but highlighted Prevost because he had been prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops—the office that oversees negligence investigations—since 2023.