French Abuse Survivors Say Pope Acknowledges Church’s Systemic Failures

French survivors of clergy sexual abuse who met with Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes expressed deep emotional impact from the pontiff’s personal empathy and acknowledgment of institutional failures. Speaking at an invitation-only press conference following the Sept. 27 audience, five of the seven survivors who participated—Véronique Garnier, Olivier Mardi, Jérôme Guillement, Bertrand Virieux, and Jean-Marie Delbos—said the encounter exceeded their expectations. Two other participants chose to remain anonymous.

According to the Vatican, the pope met with the survivors—four men and three women—individually and as a group. “Pope Leo expressed his closeness to them and, through them, to all those who have suffered and still suffer from the wounds of the abuse they endured,” the Vatican said.

Delbos, 80, who was abused as a child while attending the Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school, said he was overwhelmed by emotion despite having left the Catholic Church six decades ago. “When he saw what state I was in, he took me in both arms,” Delbos recalled. “I never imagined it would be the pope holding me. It was an extraordinary moment.”

Guillement, who was abused as a teenager by his parish priest and now leads a survivors’ panel working with French Catholic schools, urged the pope to focus on prevention “not through endless training modules or procedures, but prevention rooted in real culture change.” He also noted that Pope Leo “has a very clear opinion” on the systemic nature that allowed the clergy abuse crisis to persist.

“That point struck me as particularly powerful, because it highlights—as he stated repeatedly—just how pervasive this systemic issue remains,” Guillement added. “He emphasized repeatedly that, even though significant work has been done in France—and he acknowledges his own substantial contribution there—the Church in France still has a great deal more to do.”

Asked by a reporter whether the pope formally acknowledged the systemic nature of abuse, Guillement replied, “Absolutely.” The pope, Guillement recalled, stressed that abusers “are individuals, distinct individuals. But the way they can—and have—spread over time is really linked to the systemic dimension.” “And he added: ‘I speak of it in the past tense, but it is a dimension that is still present—this systemic dimension,'” Guillement said.

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