Pope Leo XIV will receive seven victims of sexual abuse within the Church during his visit to France on September 27 in Lourdes. The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) specifies that this meeting will be private and reserved for invited guests, without the presence of cameras. Approximately forty requests have been submitted to the Church, including a dozen from victims' groups.
The main victims' group from the Bétharram institution, located near Lourdes, was not among those invited. Its spokesperson, Alain Esquerre, denounced this as "institutional contempt," arguing that the victims wished to speak collectively before the Pope and present proposals to combat sexual abuse within the Church. He also criticized what he saw as an organized selection process, which he characterized as "a competition for victimhood."
The CEF defends a "representative" group
The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) affirms that members of advocacy groups will indeed be among the seven people received and assures that the group was formed to represent the diversity of victims, particularly in terms of their gender, age at the time of the events, region, and the type of institution involved. The Ampaseo collective, which brings together victims of abuse at Catholic schools in western France, also expressed regret at not being received directly, while indicating that a stained-glass window created by a victim could be presented to the Pope.
Those unable to meet Pope Leo XIV were invited to submit written messages they wished to send him. The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) plans to compile these testimonies into a collection to be presented to the Pope and is also organizing a day of debriefing. According to the newspaper Sud-Ouest , a victim from Bétharram is expected to be among those received, even though she did not request the meeting herself. In Spain in June, Leo XIV had already met with six victims and called for "truth, justice, and reparation" in the face of sexual abuse committed within the Church.
