Pope Leo meets abuse survivors in Lourdes and pledges to prevent further harm

Pope Leo XIV met seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Lourdes on Sunday, 27 September, and pledged to help prevent others from suffering the same harm. Survivors who spoke afterward said he listened to their accounts, but the Church’s choice of a small, privately selected group has drawn criticism from others seeking a broader response.

The meeting at the bishop’s residence lasted about two hours, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to Vatican News. The seven participants were four men and three women. Leo met each person individually and in private before addressing them together, the Vatican’s account said. The private format means the full exchanges have not been made public.

What Leo told the survivors

In a Holy See Press Office statement quoted by Vatican News, Leo was said to have heard accounts of pain and suffering, including cases in which people who could have helped were complicit or remained silent. The participants also put forward proposals aimed at preventing abuse from happening again. The statement said Leo thanked them for their testimony and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that what they had experienced would not happen to others.

The Vatican said Leo prayed with some of those present and blessed the group. He expressed hope that he could work with survivors so that Catholic communities would become places of comfort and healing. The public account did not set out a detailed new policy or timetable arising from the conversation.

Survivors respond

Five of the seven spoke to reporters after meeting Leo. Jean-Marie Delbos, a former pupil of Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school, called the encounter ‘extraordinary’ and said he had never expected to meet a pope. The Associated Press reported that participants said Leo had listened and was informed about their cases. Their remarks described the encounter; they did not establish what institutional changes would follow.

The French Bishops’ Conference and the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France selected the participants after contacting about 40 groups and individuals, Vatican News reported. The group brought letters from some of those contacted. Vatican News said the limited number was intended to allow a substantive exchange, while acknowledging that the choice had prompted protests from some groups.

Before the encounter, a group of survivors published an open letter questioning why the seven had been selected by the Church rather than survivors’ groups, according to The Guardian. They warned that a request for forgiveness alone would be insufficient and called for responsibility for the abuse. The dispute concerns who gets to speak for survivors and whether listening at a private meeting will be followed by action.

A reckoning in the French Church

Earlier on Sunday, Leo told French bishops to maintain ‘the utmost vigilance’ against what he called the ‘painful scourge’ of abuse of minors by clergy or within the Church, Vatican News reported. Addressing worshippers in Lourdes before the survivor meeting, he spoke of healing the Church’s ‘deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors,’ according to The Guardian. Those remarks came during a France visit that had also drawn large crowds, including at a Paris Mass.

A 2021 independent inquiry estimated that about 330,000 children had been sexually abused over seven decades by priests or other Catholic figures in France, as reported by The Guardian and the Associated Press. That figure is the inquiry’s historical estimate, not a count of cases established in court. The findings shaped the French bishops’ subsequent response, including a reparations process.

The Guardian reported that France’s Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation had said about 2,000 people who reported abuse by clergy or other Church representatives were seeking reparations. That demand forms part of the unresolved institutional response to the abuse, alongside the questions survivors raised about accountability and participation in the Church’s decisions.

The meeting gave seven survivors a chance to put their experiences and proposals directly to Leo. Whether their proposals lead to specific measures remains open: the publicly available account records his pledge to prevent further harm, while survivors’ criticism shows that the Church’s handling of representation and responsibility remains contested.