Pope Leo XIV celebrates mass in Lourdes and meets abuse survivors
- Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air mass for numerous pilgrims at Lourdes, using historic liturgical items that once belonged to Bishop Bertrand-Laurence Sévère, who led the Diocese of...
- The liturgy at the Marian shrine featured a chalice, paten, cruets, altar bell, and pontifical candlestick.
- The gathering at Lourdes follows a service held at Paris's Place de la Concorde.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air mass for numerous pilgrims at Lourdes, using historic liturgical items that once belonged to Bishop Bertrand-Laurence Sévère, who led the Diocese of Tarbes during the 1858 apparitions. The papal visit to the southern French sanctuary included multilingual prayers and a private meeting with survivors of clerical abuse.
A Mass Involving Global Congregants and Historic Artifacts
The liturgy at the Marian shrine featured a chalice, paten, cruets, altar bell, and pontifical candlestick. Following the Credo, universal prayers for the Pope, the Church, clergy, the gift of peace, the sick, and pilgrims were read aloud in six languages: French, Ukrainian, English, German, Dutch, and Arabic.
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The gathering at Lourdes follows a service held at Paris’s Place de la Concorde. The American pontiff continued his journey through France.
Addressing Clergy Abuse and Meeting Survivors
Pope Leo XIV addressed the sensitive issue of clerical abuse during a closed-door gathering with French bishops, urging them to maintain strict vigilance. The Pope praised the episcopate for courageous dispositions taken in response to the crisis, five years after a report estimated that 330,000 minors had suffered abuse within the French Church since 1950.
Later in the day, the pontiff met privately with seven survivors of church-related sexual violence. This selection process drew criticism from advocacy groups such as Mouv’Enfants, whose president Arnaud Gallais spoke on RMC to question the scale of a seven-person meeting against hundreds of thousands of victims, characterizing the format as a “mascarade”.
Defending the Vatican’s approach on franceinfo, Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich explained that the engagement demonstrates a direct pastoral consideration for individuals rather than managing a problem. Earlier Sunday morning, the Pope paused to pray before “The Crying Child,” a photographic artwork depicting a weeping angel installed in November 2021 following the release of the Sauvé report.
Homily Focused on Penance and the Sanctity of Life
In his homily near the Massabielle grotto, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the sacred value of human life, telling the thousands assembled that the sanctuary remains a place where physical fragility is fully respected. Wheelchairs, crutches, and hidden tears represent the place where individuals encounter divine love rather than rejection, the pontiff stated.
Turning to penance, the Pope drew a direct line from Saint Bernadette’s obedience to the Virgin Mary to modern spiritual obligations, calling for internal conversion across the entire Church. He noted that acknowledging faults remains indispensable for spiritual progress and healing deep wounds caused by past infidelities.
Addressing the infirm directly toward the close of his homily, Pope Leo XIV described their role as irreplaceable within the life of the broader religious community. Pilgrims responded with brief applause before the service continued toward the Liturgy of the Eucharist.