Pope Leo meets French abuse survivors during Lourdes visit

Pope Leo visited the Catholic shrine at Lourdes, France, on 27 September 2026 and spoke to around 150,000 people. He told the Church it must admit its failures and heal "deep wounds" caused by "painful errors." He did not mention the abuse scandals in France directly. A 2021 report found that about 330,000 French children were abused by Catholic clergy over seven decades. After his speech, the pope met privately with seven survivors of clerical abuse. He spoke with each person individually and then with the group together. Survivors told him they were worried about a lack of transparency in one priest's trial and that people had mocked them publicly. The pope promised to work to prevent further abuse and asked the survivors to pray for him.