Pope Leo reaffirmed his commitment to ending abuse of children by Catholic priests in a meeting with French abuse survivors on Sunday, the Vatican said, hours after the pontiff urged the Church to admit its own failings and heal its "deep wounds."

In a two-hour meeting with seven survivors in France, where Leo is on a three-city weekend visit, the pope met privately with each of the victims and heard proposals for how to improve the Church's safeguarding measures, a Vatican statement said.

"He thanked them for their painful testimony and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that the harm they experienced is not repeated for others," it said.

The survivors said after the meeting that it was emotional and touching. They said they felt listened to by the pontiff and they were impressed by his compassion and his knowledge of their individual cases, but they also hoped that the words would be accompanied by action.

"He certainly believes that the Church has done a great deal in France, but he also believes that the Church in France still has a tremendous amount left to do," Jérôme Guillement said.

Leo is on a whirlwind four-day visit to France. Local Church leaders are hoping he will help repair the Church's standing after a 2021 report found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.

The pope told ⁠an estimated 150,000 people gathered for a Mass in a field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes earlier on Sunday that the Church must have the courage to face its past.

"In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within (the Church), we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord's purifying gaze," the first US pope said.

Véronique Garnier, one of the survivors in the meeting with the pope, said she had found the Mass, in which Leo referred to abuse without directly apologising for it, troubling and wondered why she had attended.

But she said she was encouraged by her meeting with Leo.

"I do indeed believe there is hope – hope that there can be change and truly listening to us at a deep level, rather than just superficially with beautiful words that are never followed by any real action," she said.

Leo also spoke about the abuse scandals in a closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sunday, according to a Vatican-provided text.

The pope thanked the bishops for the "courageous measures" he said they had taken to confront the scandals and urged them to buttress their safeguarding efforts ⁠and "continue on the path undertaken, maintaining the greatest vigilance."

Leo has drawn large crowds on his visit to France. Around 800,000 people came for an outdoor Mass on the Champs-Élysées with the pope in Paris on Saturday. He has also again urged the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence.

The pope, who on Friday sharply reiterated Catholic opposition to assisted dying initiatives two months after France created a legal right to die for those with incurable illnesses, again mentioned the Church's pro-life stance in Lourdes.

Meeting with volunteers who help sick pilgrims hoping to find a miracle in the shrine's waters, Leo urged them to remember the "profound meaning" of healthcare work.

"That is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person," the pope said. "Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!" (Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong