Pope Leo addressed a large crowd near Lourdes, France on September 27, urging the Catholic Church to acknowledge its past failings related to child abuse by clergy. He did not directly reference recent French scandals but emphasized the need for the Church to confront its mistakes and heal from them. The pope is scheduled to meet with abuse survivors later that day amid skepticism from some victims about whether such meetings will lead to tangible changes in addressing these issues.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-27,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Pope Leo urges Church to face failings before meeting French abuse survivors
LOURDES, France, Sept 27 -
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Leo → urge → survivors
Pope Leo on Sunday urged the Catholic Church to admit its own failings and heal "deep wounds" inflicted within its ranks, hours before he was set to meet victims of child abuse by priests in France.
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he → urge → France
Leo, addressing crowds stretching out over a large field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes, said the Church must have the courage to face its past but did not directly reference abuse scandals in France that sparked nationwide shock.
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that → address → shock
"In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within (the Church), we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord's purifying gaze," the first US pope told an estimated 150,000 people gathered in the field on a sunlit day.
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pope → heal → day
Leo is on a whirlwind three-city, four-day visit to France, where he has again urged the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence.
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he → urge → intelligence
He drew around 800,000 people for an outdoor Mass on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Saturday.
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He → draw → Saturday
Local Church leaders are hoping he will help repair the Church's standing after a 2021 report found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.
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children → hop → decades
In an earlier, closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sunday, Leo did directly refer to "the painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy," according to a Vatican-provided text.
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Leo → refer → text
The pope thanked the bishops for the "courageous measures" he said they had taken to confront the scandals and urged them to buttress their safeguarding efforts and "continue on the path undertaken, maintaining the greatest vigilance."
VICTIMS SCEPTICAL PAPAL MEETING WILL SPUR ACTION
Leo has previously apologised directly for abuse scandals that have damaged the Church's credibility across the world.
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that → thank → world
On a trip to Spain in June, he told bishops there that they must listen to survivors and offer them reparations.
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they → tell → reparations
The pope is due to have a closed-door meeting with seven French victims of abuse by clergy later on Sunday.
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pope → have → Sunday
Some survivors said they were doubtful the encounter would result in quick changes by the Church.
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encounter → say → Church
"I am quite sceptical that the pope will solve the issue, at least not immediately," Michèle Le Reun-Gaigné, co-president of an association for survivors in western France, told Reuters.
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Gaigné → solve → Reuters
"Things are moving very slowly," she said.
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she → move → ?
"It isn't going to happen overnight."
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It → go → ?
Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, the spokesperson for the French bishops, said the pope's desire to have the meeting "shows that we cannot ignore this issue and that it must always remain among our concerns".
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it → say → concerns
LOURDES CONNECTED TO VATICAN SCANDAL
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LOURDES → connect → SCANDAL
The pope's itinerary in France includes six events in Lourdes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains that attracts some 3 million pilgrims a year for visits to a shrine to the Virgin Mary and purported healing spring waters.
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that → include → Mary
The site is also connected to a scandal that has dogged the Vatican in recent years.
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that → connect → years
The shrine's facade has a series of mosaics by Rev. Marko Rupnik, a prominent religious artist with Vatican ties, who has been accused of sexual abuse.
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who → have → abuse
Rupnik, accused by more than 20 women, is not known to have commented publicly on the accusations.
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Rupnik → accuse → accusations
Five of his alleged victims wrote an open letter to the pope on Thursday, sharply criticising an ongoing Vatican trial of the cleric.
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Five → allege → cleric
The mosaics, stories tall, have been covered for the pope's visit with large, muted yellow tarps.
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mosaics → cover → tarps
Arriving for the Mass on Sunday, Leo was driven in his open-top popemobile near the facade of the shrine and the covered mosaics.
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Leo → arrive → shrine
The pope, who on Friday sharply reiterated Catholic opposition to assisted dying initiatives two months after France created a legal right to die for those with incurable illnesses, again mentioned the Church's pro-life stance in Lourdes.
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France → reiterate → Lourdes
He said the shrine's welcome for sick pilgrims hoping to find a miracle in its waters stood opposed to "current trends that seek to redefine the value of human life in illness".
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that → say → illness
The Aporia
