Pope Leo XIV met privately at the Vatican this week with an Irish survivor of clerical sexual abuse, listening for more than 40 minutes as the man recounted the trauma he endured as a child and the lifelong consequences that followed.
David Ryan, who was abused by a Catholic priest while attending Blackrock College in Dublin during the 1970s, spoke with reporters after the Feb. 2 meeting, describing a conversation marked by attentiveness and empathy. According to Ryan, the pope “was horrified” by what he heard.
“I didn’t hold back. I told him about the abuse,” Ryan said, referring to the suffering he and his late brother Mark experienced at the same school, according to EWTN News. “The pope just listened to me and then I put my questions to him and we spoke about each one at length.”
Ryan explained that Pope Leo XIV described his questions as “tough” and asked for additional time to reflect on them, requesting permission to respond more fully in a future email exchange.
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“What an experience. I’ll never, never forget it,” Ryan said. “[Pope Leo’s] sincerity, his empathy. He felt my pain,” he told reporters, according to EWTN News.
Ryan has spoken publicly for years about the abuse he suffered beginning around the age of 11. In a 2024 interview, he said the effects never faded. “You never forget about it. It ruined my life, it ruined Mark’s life,” he said, according to EWTN News.
During the Vatican meeting, Ryan shared that it took him four decades to fully grasp a painful truth: that the abuse was not his fault. Reflecting afterward, he said he felt genuinely heard. “I did get a feeling of being listened to and being understood,” he said, adding that he hopes other victims will feel encouraged to come forward.
Also present briefly at the Vatican was Deirdre Kenny, CEO of One In Four, an Irish organization that supports survivors of child sexual abuse. Kenny described her encounter with the pope as “very human … very down-to-earth,” according to EWTN News.
Ryan acknowledged that he does not consider himself deeply religious, a fact he shared openly with the Holy Father. Still, he said he maintains a personal relationship with God. “I talk to God in my own funny, little way,” he said, according to EWTN News.
The meeting adds to Pope Leo XIV’s early gestures toward listening directly to survivors of abuse, underscoring the Church’s ongoing reckoning with the wounds caused by clerical sexual misconduct and the need for accountability, healing, and justice grounded in truth.
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