By Philip Phi
Posted Aug 18, 2026 at 9:41 PM
Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during his upcoming four-day trip to France, which includes a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes, and an interreligious gathering in Metz. The Vatican announced that the meeting with abuse survivors will be a key part of the visit, with the victims involved in planning the meeting. The specifics of the timing and location will be shared later.
This visit comes as the Catholic Church continues to address its past failures in handling abuse cases. In France, a 2021 report estimated that 330,000 children were sexually abused by church personnel over 70 years. Pope Leo XIV has shown a commitment to addressing these issues, as evidenced by his recent appointment of French Bishop Thibault Verny to lead the Vatican’s child protection advisory commission.
During his recent trip to Spain, Pope Leo XIV met with six abuse survivors, highlighting the Church’s ongoing efforts to confront its legacy of abuse and cover-up. This trip to France will be his fourth foreign visit this year, following travels to Monaco, four African nations, and Spain and the Canary Islands.
The Pope’s itinerary in France begins in Paris on September 25, where he will meet with President Emmanuel Macron and address various authorities and civil society groups. He will also deliver a speech at UNESCO and conclude the day with a prayer vigil for young people at the national stadium.
On the second day, Pope Leo XIV will focus on themes of social inclusion and active participation. He will visit the Maison Bakhita center for social support and integration and meet with a synodal assembly to discuss involving laypeople in church matters. Later, he will travel to Lourdes to pray at the Grotto of the Apparitions and meet with the staff and visitors at the Accueil Notre-Dame. The visit will conclude with the Rosary and torchlight procession, a hallmark of Lourdes’ spiritual tradition.
Throughout these engagements, the Pope’s actions reflect a commitment to justice, mercy, and care for victims, aligning with the biblical call to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Source: Read the original report
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
