Pope Leo XIV has urged French bishops to root out the “scourge” of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, placing a long record of institutional failure at the centre of his visit to France.
In a private meeting at the Sanctuary of Our Holy Lady of Lourdes, held on the third day of his four-day official visit, the Pope told bishops they had taken “courageous” steps in facing “the painful scourge of abuse of minors”. The 71-year-old pontiff did not set out specific measures or reforms that he expected French dioceses to adopt.
The meeting took place against the findings of a 2021 inquiry, which concluded that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as children in France over 70 years. Pope Leo also met seven survivors of abuse by French clergy during the visit.
One of them, Jean-Marie Delbos, described the encounter by saying: “I never thought I would have a Pope before me”. Details of the other survivors’ accounts and of the private conversations were not disclosed.
Pope Leo celebrated Mass at the Lourdes shrine, attended by around 150,000 people. Catholics venerate Lourdes as a place of healing, and the sanctuary lies near the Spanish border. The setting gave added weight to the Pope’s call for the Church to address abuse, following the inquiry’s account of harm suffered by children over decades.
The Lourdes Mass followed large public gatherings in Paris. An estimated 700,000 people assembled at the Place de la Concorde to hear the pontiff speak, while a Mass in Paris attended by 800,000 believers preceded the service at Lourdes. Pope Leo also met French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday. The contents of their private discussions are unknown.
The visit has also brought the Church into debate over France’s euthanasia and assisted suicide law, which came into effect last month. Pope Leo said: “What is legal is not necessarily moral.”
He also said: “We must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion” and “It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal”. His remarks set out the Church’s objection to the new law while the institution seeks to respond to the continuing consequences of abuse.
French Catholicism has changed sharply over recent decades. The share of regular worshippers has fallen from 35% of the population in 1960 to less than 5% today. The number of priests has shrunk by two-thirds, from 25,000 in 1990 to fewer than 9,000.
There are also signs of new participation. Adult baptisms more than doubled in five years to hit 10,000 in 2025. Pope Leo’s visit has therefore combined public displays of faith with a direct appeal to bishops over abuse and a defence of the Church’s teaching on end-of-life issues.
Comments (0)