Catholic Church Abuse: Pope Leo XIV Demands Confronting Past Failings

Pope Leo XIV has called on the Catholic Church to acknowledge its failures and confront sexual abuse within its ranks, as he celebrated an open-air Mass in Lourdes, France.

The Pope made the call on Sunday during his visit to France, where about 150,000 people gathered for the Mass in Lourdes, following a large turnout of nearly 800,000 people in Paris on Saturday.

In his homily, Leo urged the Church to take responsibility for wrongdoing and pursue healing and accountability.

“The Church must have the courage to be the first to undergo this conversion,” he said, stressing the need to address the wounds and wrongdoing committed within the Church.

“Acknowledging our own faults is essential to our spiritual progress,” the Pope added.

Earlier on Sunday, Leo met privately with French bishops and praised their efforts to address sexual abuse involving minors within the Church.

He urged them to remain vigilant and continue efforts focused on listening to survivors, establishing the truth, pursuing justice, providing reparation and strengthening measures to prevent abuse.

Leo also called for greater support for members of the clergy while emphasising the importance of continued vigilance.

The Pope was scheduled to meet seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse, including one person who was abused as an adult.

However, some survivors criticised the selection process for the meeting, arguing that Church authorities should not have been responsible for choosing participants.

In an open letter published by French newspaper Libération, a group of survivors called on the Pope to recognise the Church’s responsibility and argued that survivors’ organisations should have had a greater role in selecting participants.

Monsignor Pierre-Antoine Bozo, spokesperson for the French bishops’ conference, said two of the seven participants had been proposed by survivors’ organisations.

He explained that the Pope had opted for a small group to allow for a more personal and meaningful conversation with survivors.

The Catholic Church in France has faced years of scrutiny over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

An independent investigation published in 2021 estimated that about 330,000 children had been sexually abused over a 70-year period by priests, Church workers and others associated with Catholic institutions.

The report identified about 3,000 alleged perpetrators among priests and Church workers.

Although the report faced criticism over its methodology and conclusions, French bishops subsequently established an independent compensation system for survivors.

The compensation system has so far recommended that the Church pay more than €20 million to survivors.