Pope Leo XIV called this Sunday to the French bishops to persevere in prevention and reparation of sexual assaults on minors within the Church, hours before meeting with seven victims in Lourdes, in the southwest of France.
Acclaimed for two days by hundreds of thousands of faithful in Paris, the American-Peruvian pontiff lives in this important Catholic pilgrimage center the most difficult stage of your trip to France, with sexual assaults on the agenda, reported AFP.
The Church in France has been shaken for years by the revelations of sexual violence within them. In 2021, a report commissioned by bishops and nuns estimated up to 330,000 the number of minor victims since 1950.
“In recent years, they have determinedly faced the painful scourge of abuse against minors (…) It is necessary to persevere on the path undertaken, maintaining maximum vigilance“, he assured the French Episcopal Conference in a closed-door meeting, according to the Vatican.
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 created an independent body intended for the recognition and reparation of victims.
But the scandals continued. Accusations of sexual violence They also splashed the late Abbé Pierre, a popular figure in France and symbol of the fight against exclusion, and attacks were reported in Catholic schools, like that of Betharram, in the southwest of the country.
The diocese of Lourdes even decided completely cover the mosaics of the façade of one of its basilicas made by Marko Rupnik, a Slovenian priest accused of sexual assault, to allow victims to return to the sanctuary.
“Justice must be done”
The words of Leo XIV were highly anticipated by the faithful, especially when the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world still He had not commented on the matter since arriving in France on Friday.
Without explicitly referring to the issue, Leo
The Supreme Pontiff will meet with the seven victims of sexual assault within the Church in France, but this format, which he already used during his visit to Spain where he asked for “truth, justice and reparation”, generated discomfort.
Victims’ groups criticized not be received and the seven people invited They even warned in a statement that “dialogue does not mean endorsement”, “being received does not mean giving up” demands.
