Pope Leo Visits France, Meets Abuse Victims Amid Rupnik Case

Pope Leo XIV began a four-day official visit to France on Friday, his first stop after visiting Africa, with plans to meet clerical sex abuse victims in Lourdes amid renewed scrutiny of the Church's handling of allegations against the Slovenian priest-artist Marko Rupnik.¹⁷²⁵

A first visit in 18 years

It marks the first time in 18 years that a Catholic pontiff has made an official trip to France, and the first papal state visit there since Benedict XVI's in September 2008. Several issues hang over the journey, including clerical sexual abuse and France's new assisted dying law, according to AFP.¹

Rupnik mosaics covered at Lourdes

Marko Rupnik, a 71-year-old Slovenian priest-artist whose mosaic work decorates roughly 200 churches and chapels globally, has been accused by at least 20 women, mostly former nuns, of sexual and psychological abuse dating to the 1990s. The Jesuits removed him from the order in 2023 after concluding the claims against him were "very highly" credible, and he currently faces a Church trial.⁶⁴⁵¹

Ahead of the pope's arrival, the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, ordered Rupnik's mosaics in the sanctuary covered with hangings bearing the visit's motif. Micas said Lourdes was "le lieu de toutes les fragilités, de toutes les blessures" and that holding the meeting with victims there carried particular meaning.³⁵⁶

Vatican News reported that 200 tesserae from a mosaic titled "Renaître" would be distributed to symbolic locations worldwide, with Lourdes receiving the first and two-hundredth pieces. A member of the community, Sœur Samuelle, described mosaic-making as "littéralement l'art de recoller les morceaux."³

Victims press for accountability

Five alleged victims of Rupnik sent an open letter ahead of the visit urging Pope Leo to press for the conclusion of the priest's nearly year-long Church trial, which involves five designated judges. They said the current process suggests "it is useless to report abuse to ecclesiastical authorities, because nothing happens anyway and no one will be held accountable," and asked that the outcome "remain free of any shadow of doubt." The Vatican press office did not immediately comment.⁵

Separately, Pope Leo is due to meet seven victims privately on Sunday in Lourdes, among them an 80-year-old who once attended the Notre-Dame de Betharram boarding school, an institution that has faced widespread accusations of physical and sexual abuse. The meeting follows a 2021 inquiry that found clergy or lay Church members had abused about 330,000 minors in France over 70 years, and comes after further damage to the Church's standing from accusations against the charity figure Abbé Pierre.¹²

Political undercurrents

The visit falls seven months before France's presidential election, a race Marine Le Pen's National Rally sees as its strongest opportunity yet to win power, with migration expected to be a central issue. Pope Leo is due to visit Maison Bakhita, an association supporting migrants, which the researcher Martin Dumont called a "strong signal," recalling the pope's condemnation of "indifference" toward migrants during his June visit to Spain.¹

In June, France's parliament enacted a law granting certain adults with incurable illnesses the right to assisted dying, a move the Catholic Church in France condemned as a "rupture." Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline said "the defence of the dignity of human life" was central to the pope's message, adding, "How will he convey this in France? We shall see." Dumont said the pope might touch on the topic but that he "would be very surprised if he took a confrontational stance."¹

Pope Leo is also scheduled to deliver speeches at UNESCO and in Metz, where his programme includes a meeting titled "To the roots of Europe for peace and unity." The historian Charles Mercier said, "By choosing to defend European integration, the Pope is already giving his visit a political direction," while the political scientist Francois Mabille pointed to the pope's focus on "Europe's role in relation to what he calls 'imperial logics' -- namely the United States, China and Russia."¹

According to The New York Times, the journey reflects Pope Leo's effort to engage both Catholicism's historic heartlands and its newer strongholds, a focus that largely bypassed countries such as France under his predecessor Francis.⁷⁶