During a four-day visit to France, Pope Leo XIV addressed a gathering of approximately 150,000 people near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes, calling on the church to acknowledge past transgressions. The pope stated that the institution must “humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze” to address what he characterized as deep wounds and painful errors within the church, though he did not explicitly name sexual abuse scandals.
Following a morning mass at Lourdes, the pontiff held a private meeting with seven survivors of child sexual abuse perpetrated by French clergy. The survivors subsequently indicated that the pope had listened to their accounts, demonstrated familiarity with their individual cases, and acknowledged that further action was necessary in responding to the abuse crisis. Five of the seven survivors participated in a press conference to discuss the encounter.
The meeting occurs against the backdrop of significant findings regarding abuse within French Catholic institutions. An independent inquiry completed in 2021 determined that approximately 330,000 children experienced sexual abuse over a seven-decade period by clergy or other Catholic representatives. France’s Catholic bishops’ conference committed to providing compensation to affected individuals, and approximately 2,000 people have since filed reparation claims through the country’s Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation.
During his homily, the pope also addressed the topic of medically assisted dying, which he characterized as immoral and contrary to Catholic church teaching on the protection of human life. This statement came after France recently enacted legislation permitting physician-assisted death for incurably ill adults, joining several other nations with comparable laws.
Some abuse survivors and advocacy groups expressed skepticism about the visit’s significance prior to the pope’s arrival, questioning whether the selected survivors represented broader survivor communities and whether the meeting would result in meaningful institutional change.
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