Pope Leo XIV issued a firm call to conversion from sin and error in the Church, and invited all to repent and do penance, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes yesterday. Source: EWTN News.
Mary’s call to conversion in her message to St Bernadette “also concerns the Church herself as she makes her earthly journey. She must have the courage to begin with herself,” he said at Mass at Lourdes.
“In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within her, we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze. Recognising our own faults is essential to our spiritual growth,” the pontiff said.
In 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) published a nearly 2,500-page final report, estimating that 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns in France from 1950 to 2020.
The Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo also held a private meeting in Lourdes with seven victims of sexual abuse yesterday, OSV News reports
According to a statement by the Vatican press, the Pope met individually with the survivors – four men and three women “listening to their stories, to the pain and suffering they experienced – sometimes, unfortunately, with the complicity or silence of those who could have helped them – and to their proposals to ensure that this never happens again”.
After meeting with each victim, the pope met with them together and thanked them “for their painful testimony”.
The Vatican also said he reaffirmed his “commitment to ensuring that the evil they experienced is not repeated for others”.
Lourdes is an evocative backdrop to the private meeting, since it is among the first shrines to cover artwork by the accused sexual abuser Fr Marko Rupnik, currently on trial at the Vatican.
Pope Leo celebrated Mass on a prairie across the river Gave de Pau from the grotto of the apparitions on the third day of his September 25-28 visit to France.
Pilgrims from France and around the world gathered on the grassy hill and along the streets of the shrine. Some waved flags or held banners of sacred images. A number of pilgrims arrived in wheelchairs. Around 150,000 people attended the Mass, according to the Vatican.
Earlier in the morning, Leo met with France’s bishops at the shrine, where he praised their courage in opposing the recent legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the country.
FULL STORY
Pope Leo in Lourdes: The Church must heal her ‘wounds, infidelities, and painful errors’ (By Hannah Brockhaus, EWTN News)
At Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV holds private meeting with abuse survivors (By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News)
