POPE LEO XIV VISITS LOURDES, TO MEET SEX ABUSE SURVIVORS
Read Time:3 Minute, 2 Second
Agency Report
Pope Leo XIV waved to believers on Sunday as he made his way to Mass in the French pilgrimage town of Lourdes, where he is expected to meet victims of clerical sexual abuse on the third day of his official visit to France.
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day visit to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, marking the first official papal visit to the country in nearly two decades.
The first American pope is expected to hold a private meeting with seven victims of clerical sexual abuse as part of efforts to advance reforms in the Catholic Church following the global abuse scandal.
Domitille Bardoul, 26, arrived before dawn to attend prayers in the southwestern town at the foot of the Pyrenees after travelling by train from Paris.
“It’s very beautiful that the pope is going to listen to them,” she said, referring to the planned meeting with survivors.
“For me, it’s also a way of acknowledging that every possible measure is being taken to prevent this kind of abuse.”
A 2021 inquiry found that about 330,000 people were abused as minors by clergy or lay members of the Catholic Church in France over a period of 70 years.
Among those scheduled to meet the pope is a former pupil of the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a nearby boarding school that has faced widespread allegations of physical and sexual abuse spanning several decades.
Pope Leo arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening following a huge open-air Mass held at a Paris square and an adjoining high-end shopping avenue.
With a presidential election approaching and the far right gaining ground while immigration remains a major political issue, the pope prayed to the Virgin Mary to “obtain for France wise and generous leaders… eager to serve the common good”.
He also prayed for France to make its “voice heard in promoting the defence of fundamental human rights and peace in the world”, while rejecting “the mentality of war once and for all”.
Leo became the third pope to visit Lourdes, following Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and Pope John Paul II, who visited in 1983 and 2004.
The sanctuary, one of the world’s most important Catholic pilgrimage sites, attracts about three million pilgrims annually. Believers associate the site with miraculous healings.
On Saturday, the 71-year-old pope led a Mass attended by enthusiastic worshippers at Paris’s Place de la Concorde.
“It is truly good and pleasant when brothers and sisters come together and glorify the greatness of God,” Pope Leo said during the service.
Aline Riziki, 41, was among an estimated 800,000 people who lined the Champs-Élysées and nearby streets to see the pope, according to Vatican figures.
“It’s one time in history to see the pope,” said Riziki, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived in France for 11 years.
“I dropped everything to come here and see him, to pray for peace in the east” of her homeland, which has been affected by decades of conflict, she said.
The first American pontiff is visiting France seven months before voters are expected to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
Several presidential hopefuls attended the Mass, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe.
Macron did not attend the Mass but was represented by his wife, Brigitte. The president said in a message on X that France was “proud to welcome Pope Leo XIV and this monumental mass in the heart of Paris.”
AFP
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0