During his four-day pilgrimage to France, Pope Leo XIV has urged the Catholic Church to confront its “painful errors” and heal the “deep wounds” it has inflicted, particularly in the lead-up to a scheduled meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse.
Addressing a gathering near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, the Pontiff spoke about the necessity of reckoning with the institution’s history. While he did not explicitly name the sexual abuse scandals that have plagued the French church, his words came against the backdrop of the IEBPC report, which revealed that at least 330,000 children were abused by clergy over a span of seven decades.
The Pope’s comments highlight the ongoing tension between the Vatican’s desire for spiritual reconciliation and the demands of survivors for accountability regarding historical misconduct within the Church.
Leave a Reply