Portugal Colonial - Pope urges French bishops to 'persevere' against clerical sex abuse

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics was on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, marking the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades.

"You have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy or within an ecclesial context," he told the bishops during a private meeting in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, according to a copy of his speech released to the press.

"It is important to persevere along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance."

A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 minors in France over 70 years.

The first US pontiff was later Sunday to meet privately with seven of the victims, now adults, after promising to further efforts to reform the Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

Domitille Bardoul, 26, woke before dawn for Sunday mass with the pope in Lourdes, after taking the train from Paris.

"It's very beautiful that the pope is going to listen to them," she said of his meeting the survivors of sexual abuse.

"For me, it's also a way of acknowledging that every possible measure is being taken to prevent this kind of abuse."

Among the victims who will meet the pope was a former pupil of the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a nearby boarding school at the centre of widespread accusations of physical and sexual abuse over several decades.

- 'Time stands still' -

Catholic tradition says the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant girl in a grotto in Lourdes in 1858, and believers credit the modern-day sanctuary with miraculous healings.

It is one of the most important Catholic holy sites in the world, receiving some three million pilgrims each year.

Hymns rang out in a packed field near the sanctuary on Sunday morning after Pope Leo blessed the throng of faithful with holy water.

Marie Dufour, who works as a cashier in a casino, and her husband were among the crowd.

"We like Lourdes because it feels like time stands still here," she said, laughing about her job working "with the devil".

The pope arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening after a huge open-air mass on a Paris square and adjoining high-end shopping avenue.

Months ahead of a presidential election with the far-right surging and immigration high on the agenda, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to "obtain for France wise and generous leaders... eager to serve the common good".

He prayed for them to make France's "voice heard in promoting the defence of fundamental human rights and peace in the world".

Leo was the third pope to visit Lourdes after Benedict XVI in 2008 and Jean-Paul II in 1983 and 2004.

- Giant Paris mass -

On Saturday, the 71-year-old pope led enthusiastic worshippers in a mass at Paris's Place de la Concorde.

Aline Riziki, 41, was among an estimated 800,000 people to have lined the Champs Elysees avenue and nearby streets to listen, according to Vatican figures.

"It's one time in history to see the pope," said Riziki, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived in France for 11 years.

"I dropped everything to come here and see him," she said.

Pope Leo was visiting France seven months before voters choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron did not attend the mass but was represented by his wife Brigitte.

The president said in a message on X that France was "proud to welcome Pope Leo XIV and this monumental mass in the heart of Paris".

burs-ah/rmb

V.F.Barreira--PC