Pope urges church to admit failings and heal 'deep wounds'

Pope Leo has urged the Catholic Church to admit its own failings and heal "deep wounds" inflicted within its ranks, hours before meeting with victims of child abuse by priests in France.

Addressing crowds of more than 150,000 in Lourdes, the Pope said the Church must have the courage to face its past, but did not directly reference abuse scandals in France that sparked nationwide shock. 

"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." he said.

Arriving in Paris on Friday, the Pope went to Lourdes on Saturday and will visit Metz in the north-east on Monday.

During the trip, he has again urged the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence and drew 800,000 people for an outdoor Mass on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Local 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 Vatican provided a statement of what Pope Leo had mentioned in an earlier, closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sunday.

"The painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy,"

The Pope thanked the bishops for the "courageous measures" they had taken to confront the revelation,.

Pope Leo urged the bishops to bolster their safeguarding efforts and "continue on the path undertaken, maintaining the greatest vigilance".

Victims sceptical meeting will bring action

The Pope is due to have a closed-door meeting with seven French victims of abuse by clergy later on Sunday. 

Some survivors said they were doubtful the encounter would result in quick changes by the Church.

"I am quite sceptical that the pope will solve the issue, at least not immediately," said Michèle Le Reun-Gaigné, co-president of an association for survivors in western France.

"Things are moving very slowly. It isn't going to happen overnight."

Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, the spokesperson for French bishops, said the Pope's desire to have the meeting "shows that we cannot ignore this issue and that it must always remain among our concerns".

Pope Leo has previously apologised directly for abuse scandals that have damaged the Church's credibility across the world. 

On a trip to Spain in June, he told local bishops they must listen to survivors and offer them reparations.

Lourdes connected to Vatican scandal

The Pope's itinerary in France includes six events in Lourdes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.

It attracts some 3 million pilgrims a year for visits to a shrine to the Virgin Mary and purported healing spring waters.

The site is also connected to a ⁠scandal that has ​dogged the Vatican in recent years. 

The shrine's facade has a series of mosaics by Reverend Marko Rupnik, ​a prominent religious artist with Vatican ties, who has been accused of sexual abuse.

Mr Rupnik, accused by more than 20 women, is not known to have commented publicly on the accusations. 

Five of his alleged victims wrote an open letter to the pope last week, sharply criticising an ongoing Vatican trial of the cleric.

The storeys-tall mosaics have been covered for the Pope's visit with large tarps.

During his time in Paris and Lourdes, the Pope twice reiterated Catholic opposition to assisted dying initiatives, which comes two ‌months after France created a legal right to die for those with incurable illness.

He said the shrine welcomes sick pilgrims hoping to find a miracle in its waters, and stood opposed to "current trends that seek to redefine the value of human life in illness".