Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV

Photo Credit: Someone who still drinks the Kool-Aid 

A love letter to the victims and survivors who were never supposed to live long enough to speak.

In the grand halls of Vatican City, where gilded ceilings glimmer and centuries-old incense hangs thick in the air, the Catholic Church has once again offered up a Pope, this time, one plucked from the familiar cloth of “pastoral reform” and soft-spoken diplomacy. But to the victims of clergy rape, and to those whose childhoods were desecrated behind the locked doors of sacristies and confessionals, this papal ascension is not a cause for celebration.

It is an insult.

As the Catholic machine claps politely and the mainstream press hurries to polish another pontifical profile, painting the new Pope as a bridge-builder, a humble servant, and a shepherd to the global faithful, those of us who live in the world of truth, not robes and rituals, are left to scream into the void. Again.

This man, the so-called “Holy Father,” does not ascend an empty throne. He inherits a dynasty of corruption, cruelty, and calculated concealment. The blood on the garments of his predecessors is still wet. The cries of the raped and the ruined still echo beneath every vaulted chapel and marble tomb. And his fingerprints? Already smudged on the paperwork of silence.

The Rotten Roots

To understand the scope of the betrayal, one must look beyond the theater of religion and pageantry, and into the institutional rot that has metastasized inside the Church for generations. The Catholic hierarchy has not merely mishandled abuse allegations, it industrialized the process. Victims were not only ignored; they were re-victimized by forced secrecy, coerced settlements, and threats cloaked in pastoral concern.

This latest Pope, Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV for the sake of naming the enemy, may wear a different smile than those who came before him, but he rises through the same ranks that covered up monstrous crimes. He was groomed not in virtue, but in loyalty. He puts on his pants (if he has one under the dress) one leg at a time, and shits brown just like you and I. Loyalty not to Christ, but to the Church’s survival above all else.

And who bore the cost of that survival? Children. Hundreds of thousands of them.

A “Reformer” in Name Only

Much like his predecessor, Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV arrives with a Public Relations halo affixed firmly to his head. Francis, after all, was the Pope who promised “zero tolerance.” He convened global summits, spoke of shame, and washed feet with great drama.

But under his reign, the machinery of cover-up never stopped grinding.

Francis shielded Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, a man who survivors accused of watching and facilitating sexual abuse. When confronted, Francis lashed out, calling the claims “slander” and scolding the public for daring to question his judgment. Only after widespread backlash and media scrutiny did he reverse course and accept the resignations of dozens of bishops, a move hailed by some as justice.

But justice delayed under pressure is not justice. It’s self-preservation.

Then came the nightmare of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a known predator who ascended through the Church despite years of whispers, reports, and Vatican documentation. Under Francis, McCarrick’s Vatican-imposed sanctions were lifted, allowing him to publicly minister, travel, and fundraise, even as victims cried out from the margins. It wasn’t until the media dragged it into the sunlight that action was taken.

Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV was in the rooms for all of it.

He sat on synods. He contributed to policy drafts. He observed as the Vatican promised transparency while burying internal investigations behind canon law and ecclesiastical immunity. He saw the playbook in action: delay, deny, and delegate blame. And now, he is its chief author.

Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse: The Real Church Militant

While Catholic bishops busy themselves with red hats and moral posturing, the real apostles of justice are found outside the Church, among the broken, the discarded, and the defiant.

Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse (SCSA), a grassroots movement formed by survivors for victims, has long called out the papal shell game. They’ve stood outside cathedrals holding the photographs of raped boys and girls while the Vatican issued hollow apologies from a thousand miles away. They’ve read aloud sworn depositions while clerics held Eucharistic processions to distract the faithful. And they’ve met with governments and prosecutors to demand action, because the Church never will.

SCSA has long warned that popes like Francis, and now Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV, have mastered the art of public remorse without reform. Their offices release moving statements, yet their hands never sign over the files. They kiss victims in public while instructing canon lawyers and their hired attorneys to deny every civil request for documentation. They call survivors “brave” in the press, then turn around and punish whistleblowers, fining them $400.000.00 USD for telling the truth and protecting children.

These men wear crucifixes (and dresses), but they crucify the truth and their own child victims.

Secrecy, Sanctimony, and the Scorched Earth Below

The Vatican, by its own rules, bestowed upon them by the Italian government via the Lateran Treaty in the year of our Lord, 1929. The United States of America established Diplomatic relations with them in 1934? What happened to separation of church and state? The Continental Congress of the United States of America has an officially elected Chaplain, by the United States Senate? Well, at least he's a Navy Man and an Seventh-day Adventist, not a Roman Catholic.

And now they are recognized as an independant nation state by the United Nations? Diplomatic immunity, special passports to allow them to escape? That means its records are sealed. Its bishops are diplomatic officials. Its finances are untouchable. And its internal investigations? Conducted in secret, using rules written by the very institution under investigation.

Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV inherits a Vatican archive choked with files, documents naming thousands of predators, correspondence about payouts, coded language referring to “boundary violations,” and records of reassigned clergy who were quietly relocated to new parishes with fresh victims.

To date, the Church has fought every major request for access to these files. Even in bankruptcy proceedings, like the one currently unfolding in New Orleans, Church lawyers claim that releasing names would “irreparably harm the faith community.”

I, myself, was offered a personal, private audience with Pope Benedict; you know, Ratzinger, the "Nazi Pope." A free trip, all expenses paid, to be facilitated by the Jesuit Order, communicated to me by Jesuit Father Boudreaux, at Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House, at 600 North Shady Shores Road, Lake Dallas, TX 75065. I declined. I didn't know what I would say, and was scared of what I might do, and I sure as hell wasn't kissing a fucking ring on that bastard's hand.

Let’s be clear: The only thing harmed by the truth is the power of the predator and his protector.

A Pontificate of Excuses

Already, Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV’s defenders are racing to frame his past as “complicated.” They say he had little influence over major abuse decisions. That he wasn’t the final authority. That he was “shocked” by the McCarrick revelations. That he “believes survivors.”

We’ve heard it all before. The word “believe” means nothing without action. And action, in this religion, remains a tightly wound illusion.

The Vatican still refuses to create a global registry of credibly accused priests. It still hides behind the “seal of confession” when prosecutors seek testimony. It still elevates bishops known for obstructing justice. And now, it has chosen as its supreme leader a man who played a backstage role in keeping these very mechanisms alive.

If Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV wishes to prove otherwise, let him do what none of his predecessors had the courage to do:

1. Publish the Vatican’s full clergy abuse archives.
2. Excommunicate every bishop who covered up abuse.
3. Create an international tribunal, composed of TRUE laypeople, not clergy, with subpoena power and criminal authority.
4. Pay reparations, not with insurance shell games, but from the Vatican treasury.

That's just a start.

Until then, every rosary bead clutched in His or Mary's name rattles like a chain on a locked basement door.

Final Benediction? Not Yet.

Some would urge us to give this Pope a chance. That he might surprise us. That we must pray for him.

But prayer without truth is just noise. And the children raped by these so-called men of God deserve more than our patience. They deserve vengeance, not in the form of violence, but in the raw, relentless pursuit of justice.

Pope Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV may sit upon the Throne of St. Peter, but he does not sit above judgment. He is not the Vicar of Christ. He is the inheritor of a millennia-old crime syndicate of silence. And unless he tears it down brick by brick, he will be remembered not for what he preached, but  for what he protected.

The victims see him. The survivors know his name. And the catholic religion may be good at canonizing saints, but history will not absolve its cowards.

All HAIL Pope Sinead O'Connor! Perhaps the new "pope," Leo XIV Guilty CCLXV will be the next Queen of Denmark.

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, confidential help and advocacy are available through Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse (SCSA) at 469-275-1439, or by visiting http://www.scsaorg.org.

About

About the author: Dr. Windmann has been an activist and advocate for chilldhood sex abuse victims and survivors for over a decade. He is one of the co-founders of Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse, and is currently the president of the organization. He is also a prolific speaker and writer on the subject of childhood sex abuse, and appeared in the Netflix documentary "Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America." You can contact him at [email protected].

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