Pope Leo XIV addressed a crowd of around 150,000 people near the Catholic shrine in Lourdes, France, calling on the church to heal from past mistakes without explicitly mentioning recent scandals. During his four-day visit, he met privately with survivors of child sexual abuse by French clergy and urged French bishops to maintain vigilance against abuse. The pope's trip follows reports that 330,000 children were affected by sexual abuse committed over seven decades within the church in France.
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).
The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.
asserted
he → call → France
Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.
“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 the estimated crowd of 150,000 people.
asserted
pope → address → people
Leo is due to privately meet seven survivors of child sexual abuse by French clergy on Sunday after leading an open-air morning mass at Lourdes, one of the most popular Catholic sites for pilgrims and reputed as a place of healing.
asserted
Leo → meet → healing
Meeting French bishops earlier on Sunday, Leo said they had acted with determination against “the painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy or in an ecclesial context against minors”.
asserted
they → meet → minors
He urged them “to continue along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance”, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the Vatican.
uncertain
you → urge → Vatican
Arriving at Lourdes in a white popemobile on Saturday night, Leo would have been reminded of the church’s dark and painful legacy, as he passed boarded-up mosaics by a Jesuit priest who is accused of abusing more than two dozen women over three decades.
asserted
who → arrive → decades
Marko Rupnik, one of the Catholic church’s best-known mosaic artists, is on trial in a Vatican court, accused by more than two dozen women of having psychologically, spiritually and sexually abused them from the 1990s, including during the creation of his artworks.
asserted
Rupnik → know → artworks
The bishop of Lourdes ordered the works covered up, reasoning that survivors of abuse seeking succour at the site should not be forced to see them.
asserted
survivors → order → them
Rupnik is not known to have commented publicly on the allegations, Reuters reported.
asserted
Reuters → know → allegations
Among the survivors who will meet the pope is a former pupil of the nearby Catholic boarding school Notre-Dame de Bétharram, whose former students have recounted their experiences of violence, rape and sexual assault in what is thought to be the biggest child sexual abuse scandal at a school in French history.
asserted
what → meet → history
In an interview published last year, the pope spoke of the “crisis” of clerical sexual abuse in the church.
asserted
pope → publish → church
He also said “victims must be treated with great respect and with an understanding that those who have suffered very deep wounds because of abuse, sometimes carry those wounds for their entire life”, according to a transcript on Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news site.
uncertain
who → say → News
The first visit to France by the head of the Catholic church in 18 years follows an announcement last week by the country’s Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation that about 2,000 people who reported sexual abuse by clergy or other church representatives were seeking reparations.
asserted
who → follow → reparations
France’s Catholic bishops conference agreed to provide compensation after a landmark report in 2021 estimated that 330,000 children were sexually abused over seven decades by predatory priests or other Catholic figures.
asserted
children → agree → priests
The two-and-a-half-year independent inquiry found that vast numbers of children were subjected to sexual violence by priests and clergy and that the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by a deliberate “veil of silence” in the church.
asserted
crimes → find → church
On the day Leo arrived in Paris, a group of survivors published an open letter voicing fears that his visit would change nothing, criticising that the seven he was due to meet in Lourdes were “carefully selected” by the church, rather than survivors’ groups.
“You will merely ask us for forgiveness.
asserted
You → arrive → forgiveness
One does not ask for forgiveness for a crime; one is responsible for a crime,” they wrote in the letter published in the newspaper Libération.
asserted
they → ask → newspaper
The pope arrived to celebrate mass on Sunday morning to a rapturous reception from the faithful, who waved flags and cheered, as they thronged the streets of Lourdes to catch a glimpse of him.
asserted
they → arrive → him
The Holy See’s live stream showed Leo making stately progress in his popemobile, stopping frequently to greet and bless babies that were passed to him.
asserted
that → show → him
The south-western town near the Spanish border is one of the most important Catholic sites in the world, attracting 3 million pilgrims a year.
asserted
town → attract → pilgrims
The Associated Press reported that the pope’s visit had caused accommodation prices to soar, with the price of some one-night hotel stays reaching more than €2,000 (£1,700).
asserted
price → report → 2,000
The Aporia
