Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz, the Vatican announced on Friday. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
The Vatican issued a brief separate statement highlighting the meeting with several abuse survivors and noting that the victims themselves will be involved in preparations for the meeting. The timing and location will be provided at a later date.
Leo met with six abuse survivors during his recent trip to Spain. In France, a 2021 report estimated 330,000 children had been sexually abused over 70 years by church personnel. The pontiff last month signaled commitment to continuing the fight against clergy sexual abuse by appointing French Bishop Thibault Verny to head the Vatican's child protection advisory commission.
The Sept. 25-28 France trip will be Leo's fourth foreign voyage of the year. He made a day trip to Monaco in March, visited four African nations in April and Spain and the Canary Islands in June. The Vatican also confirmed this week that he will make his first trip to Latin America as pontiff in November, with visits to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
Leo will start his visit Sept. 25 in Paris, meeting with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, addressing authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps, giving a speech at UNESCO headquarters, celebrating vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral and ending the day with a prayer vigil with young people at the national stadium.
On the second day, he will visit the Maison Bakhita center for social support and integration, meet with a synodal assembly and recently baptized Catholics. He travels later to Lourdes, where he will pray at the Grotto of the Apparitions and meet staff and sick people of the Accueil Notre-Dame. He closes the visit with the Rosary and torchlight procession. He ends his visit in Metz with an interreligious meeting at a conference center named for Robert Schuman.
While his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, mostly stayed away from big European centers of Christianity, Leo appears to be paying more attention to the experience of the European faithful. Francis visited France twice, but never on a state visit to Paris.