Pope Leo XIV Meets Abuse Victims During Historic Four-Day Tour of France

Pope Leo XIV will meet privately on Sunday with seven victims of clerical abuse during his four-day trip to France. This visit marks the first official papal journey to the country in nearly two decades. The head of the global Catholic Church is scheduled to speak with seven survivors, including a former student from the Notre-Dame de Betharram boarding school in southwestern France. This school has faced widespread accusations of physical and sexual abuse spanning decades. A major inquiry conducted in 2021 revealed that church members had abused approximately 330,000 minors in France over a seventy-year period. The meeting follows a massive open-air mass held on Saturday at Paris's Place de la Concorde. The Vatican reported that roughly 800,000 worshippers gathered around the site, stretching past the Arc de Triomphe, to attend the service led by the seventy-one-year-old pontiff. Earlier on Saturday, the pope visited Maison Bakhita, a refugee support centre, where he met with migrants and emphasized the importance of dignity and peaceful coexistence. During his stop in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, the U.S. pontiff prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle and asked for wise leaders to promote human rights and world peace ahead of France's upcoming presidential election. Several political figures attended the Paris mass, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe, while President Emmanuel Macron was represented by his wife Brigitte.