Pope Leo XIV addressed the bishops of France, urging them to continue confronting the 'scourge' of sexual violence committed by clergy members. This statement was made during his visit to France following a series of accusations against the Church in recent years.
The leader of global Catholics, uniting 1.4 billion people, was in France as part of a four-day trip. This visit marked the first official papal journey to this secular country with deep Catholic roots in nearly two decades.
During a private meeting in the pilgrimage city of Lourdes, according to an published copy of his speech, he told the bishops: 'You have resolutely confronted the painful scourge of the abuse of minors by clergy or in a church context.' He emphasized the importance of maintaining vigilance and continuing the path that has been started.
A 2021 investigation revealed that over 70 years in France, approximately 330,000 minors were subjected to violence by clergy or lay members of the Church.
After this, the Pope visited seven victims who are now adults on Sunday for the first time, promising to intensify efforts to reform the Church amid the global sexual abuse scandal. Among them is an 80-year-old man who was abused by students at the Notre-Dame de Betharram boarding school, which is nearby and has become the center of widely reported accusations of physical and sexual violence over many decades.
Catholic tradition states that the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant girl in a grotto in Lourdes in 1858, and the modern sanctuary is one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. The southwestern French city receives about three million pilgrims annually, who attribute miraculous healing to it.
On Sunday morning near the sanctuary, where many people gathered, hymns were sung after Pope Leo blessed the faithful with holy water. 54-year-old Jérôme Vion from Paris, wearing a lavender T-shirt with the inscription 'Generation Leo,' noted that they immediately bought tickets upon learning of the Pope's visit. He approved of the Pope's attention to victims of clerical abuse, stating that 'his role as spiritual guide is to direct this church, which has experienced absolutely terrible things but has been in repentance for years.'
Domitille Bardoul, 26, called it very beautiful that the Pope plans to listen to the victims, adding that this is also an acknowledgment that all possible measures are being taken to prevent such violence.
Leo is the third Pope to visit Lourdes after Benedict XVI in 2008 and John Paul II in 1983 and 2004.
Addressing sick pilgrims on Sunday afternoon, Leo rejected euthanasia after the French parliament legalized the practice for certain adults suffering from incurable diseases. He stated: 'We must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion. What is legal is not necessarily moral.'
The Pope arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening after a large open mass in the Place de la Concorde in Paris and the adjacent luxury street. Months before the presidential elections, when far-right forces were gaining strength and immigration was a central issue, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to 'obtain wise and generous leaders for France who strive to serve the common good.'
Earlier that day, the 71-year-old Pope led a mass for enthusiastic parishioners in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, just seven months before voters elected the successor to centrist Emmanuel Macron. Several presidential candidates were present, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Édouard Philippe. Macron did not attend the mass, but his wife Brigitte represented him.