HOUSTON (AP) — The FBI is investigating a “suspected homicide” aboard a cruise ship that returned to port after departing from Galveston, Texas, the agency said in a statement Monday.
The FBI did not provide further details, saying the investigation was ongoing. The company that operates the MSC Seascape said the vessel has since resumed its voyage and left Galveston as of Monday afternoon.
“On reporting a guest incident aboard our ship, we were instructed by the authorities to return to the Port of Galveston,” Natasha Fernandez, a spokesperson for MSC Cruises, said in a statement.
The company is cooperating with authorities and providing support to those impacted, she said.
MSC Seascape currently runs from Galveston to the Caribbean for five- and seven-night stays, according to the company’s website. The towering white vessel has 2,270 cabins, more than 1,600 crew and can host nearly 5,900 guests. The ship switched from Miami to Galveston last November, according to a news release.
Homicide investigations on cruise ships are uncommon. Earlier this year, a teenager was charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship out of Florida.
“The FBI is the primary federal agency authorized to investigate potential crimes on the high seas,” the bureau noted in a post on X.
The MSC Seascape cruise ship is visible above the newly opened cruise terminal near 16th Street and Harborside Drive in Galveston, Texas, Friday, Nov., 7, 2025. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via AP)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV met with survivors of clergy abuse on Monday during his visit to Argentina, a country that has been reckoning with the Catholic Church’s legacy of sex abuse and cover-up, including in cases in which the Argentine Pope Francis intervened.
The Vatican said Leo spent about an hour meeting individually, and then as a group, with five victims of abuse by clergy and “church institutions” who were chosen by the local church. The meeting took place before Leo left for an event at the Catholic University of Argentina.
Leo listened to their “painful stories and proposals to consolidate paths of healing in the church,” said a statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Acknowledging that there were other groups of victims who had wanted to meet with Leo, “the pope expressed his closeness and desire to reinforce paths of protection, of welcome and accompaniment in the church,” it said.
Victims groups had said they wanted to meet with Leo and were denied, including a group of 43 women who allege they were subjected to human trafficking and forced labor at centers of the conservative group Opus Dei in Argentina.
Their allegations implicate senior members of Opus, some of whom have been formally accused in a criminal investigation into the women's claims. Prosecutors have requested that the members be summoned for questioning, but the judge has not ordered it. Opus has denied wrongdoing.
Given the ongoing criminal investigation, it is perhaps unlikely that Leo would have intervened by meeting with them in this case. However, in general, the American pope has followed in the footsteps of Francis and to a lesser extent Pope Benedict XVI by meeting with abuse survivors on his foreign trips, and another meeting is expected after he arrives later this week in Peru.
Ahead of the Argentine visit, survivors had also demanded stronger action from the Vatican against those accused or convicted in criminal courts but whose fates within the church’s internal legal processes haven’t been made public.
Survivors’ groups have cited several high-profile priests convicted of serious crimes, including Julio Grassi and former Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta. Francis intervened in both cases in favor of the priests who were subsequently convicted by criminal courts.
Grassi, once a prominent figure who ran homes for orphaned children, is serving a 15-year sentence for sexually abusing a minor. Francis, who at the time was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the archbishop of Buenos Aires, in 2010 commissioned a four-volume, 2,000-plus-page forensic study of Grassi’s case that concluded he was innocent, that his victims were lying and that the case never should have gone to trial.
Zanchetta, a former bishop close to Francis, was sentenced in 2022 to 4 1/2 years in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians. He was granted parole in 2025, prompting renewed demands that he be defrocked. Francis had initially rejected the accusations against Zanchetta and created a job for him at the Vatican that got him out of Argentina. The late pope eventually authorized a canonical criminal proceeding against Zanchetta in 2019, but the Vatican has not publicly announced a ruling.
The Vatican tends to not initiate canonical trials until all criminal appeals are exhausted, to not prejudge the outcomes, though it does recommend that bishops take precautionary measures during investigations such as removing priests from active ministry.
This version corrects that the meeting took place before Leo left for the university.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives to visit the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
