Pope Leo met with seven French survivors of clergy abuse on September 27 during his four-day visit to France, where he reaffirmed the Catholic Church's commitment to preventing future abuses. The meeting came after a report revealed that over 330,000 children were abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders in France over seven decades. Leo also addressed an estimated 150,000 people at a Mass near Lourdes, urging the Church to confront its past failings and heal from them.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-28,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Pope Leo pledges action on clergy abuse after meeting French survivors
LOURDES, France -
asserted
Leo → pledge → survivors
Pope Leo reaffirmed his commitment to ending abuse of children by Catholic priests in a meeting with French abuse survivors on Sept 27, the Vatican said, hours after the pontiff urged the Church to admit its own failings and heal its “deep wounds.
asserted
pontiff → reaffirm → wounds
In a two-hour meeting with seven survivors in France, where Leo is on a three-city weekend visit, the pope met privately with each of the victims and heard proposals for how to improve the Church’s safeguarding measures, said a Vatican statement.
asserted
statement → meet → measures
“He thanked them for their painful testimony and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that the harm they experienced is not repeated for others,” it said.
asserted
it → thank → others
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.
asserted
children → hop → decades
Earlier on Sept 27, the pope told an estimated 150,000 people gathered for a Mass in a field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes that the Church must have the courage to face its past.
asserted
Church → tell → past
“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 said.
asserted
pope → heal → gaze
Leo also spoke about the abuse scandals in a closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sept 27, according to a Vatican-provided text.
uncertain
Leo → speak → 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.”
asserted
they → thank → vigilance
Leo has drawn large crowds on his visit to France.
asserted
Leo → draw → France
Around 800,000 people came for an outdoor Mass on the Champs-Elysees with the pope in Paris on Sept 26.
asserted
people → come → Sept
He has also again urged the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence.
asserted
He → urge → intelligence
Victims sceptical papal meeting will spur action
asserted
meeting → spur → action
Leo has previously apologised directly for abuse scandals that have damaged the Church’s credibility across the world.
asserted
that → apologise → world
On a trip to Spain in June, he told bishops there that they must listen to survivors and offer them reparations.
asserted
they → tell → reparations
Ahead of the pope’s meeting with survivors on Sept 27, some survivors said they were doubtful the encounter would result in quick changes by the Church.
asserted
encounter → say → Church
“I am quite sceptical that the pope will solve the issue, at least not immediately,” Michele Le Reun-Gaigne, co-president of an association for survivors in western France, told Reuters.
asserted
Gaigne → solve → Reuters
“Things are moving very slowly,” she said.
asserted
she → move → ?
“It isn’t going to happen overnight.”
asserted
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”.
asserted
it → say → concerns
Lourdes connected to Vatican scandal
asserted
Lourdes → connect → scandal
The pope’s itinerary in France included 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.
asserted
that → include → Mary
The site is also connected to a scandal that has dogged the Vatican in recent years.
asserted
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.
asserted
who → have → abuse
Rupnik, accused by more than 20 women, is not known to have commented publicly on the accusations.
asserted
Rupnik → accuse → accusations
Five of his alleged victims wrote an open letter to the pope on Sept 24, sharply criticising an ongoing Vatican trial of the cleric.
asserted
Five → allege → cleric
The mosaics, stories tall, have been covered for the pope’s visit with large, muted yellow tarps.
asserted
mosaics → cover → tarps
Arriving for the Mass on Sept 27, Leo was driven in his open-top popemobile near the facade of the shrine and the covered mosaics.
asserted
Leo → arrive → shrine
The pope, who on Sept 25 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.
asserted
France → reiterate → Lourdes
Meeting with volunteers who help sick pilgrims hoping to find a miracle in the shrine’s waters, Leo urged them to remember the “profound meaning” of healthcare work.
asserted
Leo → meet → work
“That is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” said the pope.
asserted
pope → care → person
“Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!”
asserted
Medicine → become → death
The Aporia
