This Sunday, Pope Leo
Hailed for two days by hundreds of miles of faithful in Paris, the American-Peruvian pontiff lived in Lourdes, an important Catholic pilgrimage center, the most difficult stage of his trip to France.
The French Church has been shaken for years by revelations of sexual violence within it. In 2021, a report commissioned by bishops and nuns estimated the number of minor victims since 1950 at up to 330,000.
To address this situation, Leo XIV met behind closed doors with seven of them, but not with the groups that bring them together. This format, which we already used during his visit to Spain in June where he asked for “truth, justice and reparation”, had generated discomfort.
But at the end of the almost two-hour meeting, the pontiff showed signs of a “greater awareness,” according to the victims who reported to the press. He was “very attentive” and “genuinely willing to listen,” declared Olivier Mardi, one of them.
The American pope thanked them “for their painful testimony and reaffirmed their commitment to do everything possible so that the evil they have suffered is not repeated with other people,” the Vatican said in a statement.
The seven victims represent a range of scandals that have shaken the Church in France, including one of Abbé Pierre, another popular figure in the fight against exclusion, and a former student of the Bétharram Catholic school.
After the devastating 2021 report, the then Pope Francis expressed his “immense pain” and called on the French Church to “undertake a path of redemption.”
The bishops then recognized the “systemic” nature of these attacks, as Leo XIV reiterated this Sunday, and created an independent body dedicated to the recognition and reparation of the victims.
During another meeting with the bishops, their spiritual guide encouraged them to “persevere on the path they have undertaken, maintaining maximum vigilance,” after recognizing that they faced “with determination the painful scourge of abuse against minors.”
Before entering the assembly where the bishops usually meet, the pope prayed for a moment before the photograph of the sculpture “The Crying Child,” which was located in that place five years ago so as not to forget the sexual assaults.
The diocese of Lourdes even decided to completely cover the mosaics on the façade of one of its basilicas created by Marko Rupnik, a Slovenian priest accused of sexual assault, to allow victims to return to the sanctuary.
The words of the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world were highly anticipated by the faithful in France.
For Domitille Bardoul, 26, “there is an awareness” within the Church. “You don’t have to put a blindfold on your eyes,” added Paul, 31, for whom “justice has to be done” and “the father is also there to demonstrate (it).”
Without specifically referring to the issue, Leo
His penultimate day in France was also marked by this massive mass and new mass baths aboard his popemobile, amidst cheers and applause.
In front of sick pilgrims, he reiterated that it is “impossible” to consider euthanasia as something “normal” and assured them that “they are not a burden.”
Leo XIV is the third head of the Catholic Church, after John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to visit the sanctuary of Lourdes as a dad. Personally, he already did it when he was 19 and 29, like Robert Francis Prevost.
After participating in the traditional nighttime torchlight procession, the pontiff will conclude his trip on Monday with a speech on peace and the European Union in Metz, a northeastern city that France disputed with Germany during both world wars.
