The Vatican has released details of Pope Leo XIV’s itinerary for his four-day trip to France next month, which will include a meeting with survivors of clergy abuse, a visit to Lourdes and an interreligious gathering in the border city of Metz. Source: NCR Online.
The Holy See on Friday 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.
In France, a 2021 report estimated 330,000 children had been sexually abused over 70 years by church personnel.
The pontiff last month signalled 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 September 25-28 trip, which was confirmed in May, will be Pope Leo’s fourth foreign voyage of the year.
The Pope will start his visit in Paris, meeting with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace where he will address authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps before giving a speech at headquarters of the United Nations culture agency, UNESCO. He will later celebrate vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral and end the day with a prayer vigil with young people at the national stadium.
Pope Leo is making social inclusion, active participation and new converts central to his program on the second day, when he will visit the Maison Bakhita centre for social support and integration before a meeting with a synodal assembly that works to involve laypeople in Church matters, as well as recently baptised Catholics.
He travels later in the day to Lourdes, where he will pray at the Grotto of the Apparitions and meet the staff and sick people of the Accueil Notre-Dame. He will also pray the Rosary and participate in a torchlight procession through the sanctuary.
Pope Leo ends his visit in Metz, where he will attend an interreligious meeting in a conference centre named for Robert Schuman, a French statesman regarded as one of the founding fathers of European integration. Schuman, a Catholic, was declared “venerable” in 2021, a step in the Catholic sainthood process.
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Pope Leo to meet with clergy abuse survivors during upcoming trip to France (By Colleen Barry, AP via NCR Online)
