Head of the Roman Catholic Church holds ’emotional’ two-hour assembly with seven abuse victims in French city of Lourdes.
Printed On 27 Sep 2026
Pope Leo XIV has thanked a gaggle of survivors of clerical abuse “for his or her painful testimony” and “reaffirmed his dedication” to finish hurt by Catholic clergymen at a gathering in southwestern France, the Vatican stated.
The chief of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day visit to France.
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On Sunday, the pontiff visited the pilgrimage city of Lourdes, the place he privately met seven survivors of kid abuse, now adults, and promised to additional efforts to reform the Church within the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.
The group stated in a later information convention that the assembly was emotional and touching.
“When he noticed the state I used to be in, he took me into his arms,” survivor Jean-Marie Delbos stated, including, “It was a unprecedented second.”
The 80-year-old was abused as a pupil on the close by boarding college of Notre-Dame de Betharram, the place employees have been accused of bodily and sexual abuse over a number of a long time.
The survivors stated they felt heard and that they have been impressed by Leo’s compassion and data of their particular person circumstances.
However they hoped the phrases could be accompanied by motion.
Jerome Guillement, who has written a few priest abusing him as an adolescent, stated on the information convention that the pope understood the “systemic” nature of sexual abuse within the Church.
“From his perspective, the perpetrators are people, however what permits it to proceed is the systemic dimension inside the establishment,” he stated.
“He actually believes that the Church has accomplished a fantastic deal in France, however he additionally believes that the Church in France nonetheless has an amazing quantity left to do.”
Native leaders hoped Leo’s go to would assist restore the Church’s standing after a 2021 independent inquiry discovered that some 330,000 French youngsters had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven a long time.
The pope instructed an estimated 150,000 individuals gathered for a Mass in a subject close to the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes earlier on Sunday that the Church will need to have the braveness to face its previous.
Veronique Garnier, one other survivor who met with the pontiff, stated she had discovered the Mass, by which Leo referred to abuse with out immediately apologising for it, troubling and puzzled why she had attended.
However she stated she was inspired by her assembly with Leo.
“I do certainly consider there may be hope – hope that there could be change and actually listening to us at a deep stage, quite than simply superficially with stunning phrases which can be by no means adopted by any actual motion,” she stated.
Leo additionally spoke concerning the abuse scandals in a closed-door assembly with French bishops on Sunday, in keeping with a Vatican-provided textual content.
He was anticipated to go to the northeastern metropolis of Metz on Monday earlier than returning to Rome the identical day.
