Pope pledges action on clergy child abuse in meeting with French survivors

By AFP and Reuters. Published On 27 Sep 202627 Sep 2026.

Key points

• The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day visit to France.
• "When he saw the state I was in, he took me into his arms, " survivor Jean-Marie Delbos remarked, adding, "It was an extraordinary moment."
• Leo additionally spoke concerning the abuse scandals in a closed-door session with French bishops on Sunday, according to a Vatican-provided text.
• He was projected to visit the northeastern city of Metz on Monday before returning to Rome the same day.
• The survivors remarked they felt heard and that they were impressed by Leo's compassion and knowledge of their individual cases.

Pope Leo XIV has thanked a group of survivors of clerical abuse "for their painful testimony" and "reaffirmed his commitment" to end harm by Catholic priests at a session in southwestern France, the Vatican stated.

In practice, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day visit to France.

On Sunday, the pontiff visited the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, where he privately met seven survivors of child abuse, now adults, and promised to further efforts to reform the Church after the global sexual abuse scandal.

Meanwhile, the group remarked in a afterwards news conference that the session was emotional and touching.

Notably, the 80-year-old was abused as a pupil at the nearby boarding school of Notre-Dame de Betharram, where staff have been accused of physical and sexual abuse over a number of decades.

Notably, the survivors remarked they felt heard and that they were impressed by Leo's compassion and knowledge of their individual cases. But they hoped the words would be accompanied by action.

Jerome Guillement, who has written regarding a priest abusing him as a teenager, stated at the news conference that the pope understood the "systemic" nature of sexual abuse in the Church.

"From his point of view, the perpetrators are individuals, but what allows it to continue is the systemic dimension within the institution, " he remarked.

"He certainly believes that the Church has done a great deal in France, but he also believes that the Church in France still has a tremendous amount left to do."

Local leaders hoped Leo's visit would support repair the Church's standing after a 2021 independent inquiry identified that some 330, 000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.

Notably, the pope informed an estimated 150, 000 residents gathered for a Mass in a field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes earlier on Sunday that the Church must have the courage to face its past.

Veronique Garnier, another survivor who met with the pontiff, remarked she had identified the Mass, in which Leo referred to abuse without directly apologising for it, troubling and wondered why she had attended. But she remarked she was encouraged by her gathering with Leo.

"I do indeed believe there is hope – hope that there can be change and truly listening to us at a deep level, rather than just superficially with beautiful words that are never followed by any real action, " she remarked.

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