Pope Leo XIV ends four-day France visit in Metz after Paris Mass, Lourdes and meeting with abuse survivors

Pope Leo XIV flew back to Rome on the evening of Monday, Sept. 28, ending his four-day apostolic journey to France. The trip began in Paris on Sept. 25, as FWB reported that day. According to the Holy See Press Office, President Emmanuel Macron saw him off at Metz-Nancy-Lorraine Airport. His plane took off at 7:33 p.m. local time (1:33 p.m. ET) and landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport at 8:53 p.m. (2:53 p.m. ET). France 24, reporting with Agence France-Presse (AFP), cited Vatican figures of more than 1.3 million people who came out to see him from Friday through Sunday.

On Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Institut Catholique de Paris, the pope met members of the Paris provincial synodal assembly together with catechumens and newly baptized adults. OSV News reported that more than 20,000 adults were baptized in France this year. According to the text published by the Vatican, he said he was "struck by the number of people returning to the threshold of the faith." He asked for a Church in a "state of initiation" that keeps accompanying new Catholics after they are baptized, so they do not fall into what one speaker had called "post-baptismal emptiness." He also cautioned against being "complacent or naively optimistic."

That afternoon he celebrated Mass at the Place de la Concorde. TF1 Info reported that the Vatican first estimated the crowd at 700,000, then raised the figure to about 800,000, saying it was passing on a count from local authorities. The Associated Press (AP) reported that about 200,000 more people came than had registered. FWB did not find a separate figure published by the Paris police. In his homily the pope spoke of Christ as the source of "living water." According to the Vatican text, he told the crowd, "Do not keep this faith in Jesus Christ to yourselves."

In Lourdes, the pope prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle on Sept. 26. On Sunday, Sept. 27, he met the French bishops and urged them to keep to the path they had taken on abuse, "maintaining the utmost vigilance," Vatican News reported. At the shrine Mass, he rejected assisted dying, saying "what is legal is not necessarily moral," according to AP. He told the sick, "You will leave as missionaries of hope," Vatican News reported. AP said he later visited a care centre for sick people on the shrine grounds.

That evening, at the bishop's residence in Lourdes, he met seven survivors of clergy sexual abuse, four men and three women. The meeting lasted about two hours, Vatican News reported. The Holy See Press Office said he met each of them privately and then spoke to the group together. It said he thanked them for their "painful testimony" and repeated his commitment to making sure the evil they suffered "would not happen to others."

Five of the survivors spoke afterwards at an invitation-only press conference: Véronique Garnier, Olivier Mardi, Jérôme Guillement, Bertrand Virieux and Jean-Marie Delbos. The other two chose to remain anonymous. OSV News quoted Guillement's account of the pope's view: abusers are individuals, but "what creates the space and allows these abusers to keep offending is the systemic structure within the institution." Guillement said the pope told them this dimension is still present. La Croix reported that the survivors were unanimous on this point. Garnier told OSV News she had told the pope that the Church in France has not moved past the systemic problem. Delbos said he was abused at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school. He said the pope embraced him, and that he asked the pope to dissolve the Bétharram Fathers, the congregation that ran the school. According to the French edition of Vatican News, the group said, "We will remain vigilant," adding that they had made many requests and were "waiting for answers."

On the return flight, a reporter from I.Media asked whether the pope considers abuse in the Church to be systemic. According to the Vatican News transcript, he replied, "Several of them spoke about systemic abuse. Personally, I prefer to express it in a different way, although I did speak about some organizations within the Church who have, at times, if you will, as a system, been abusive." He called sexual abuse "first and foremost a human problem." When it happens in the Church, he said, people's faith can be "deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed," and the Church has "a particular responsibility" to walk with survivors toward healing.

In Metz on Sept. 28, the pope first addressed an interreligious gathering. There he said that to invoke God's name to justify violence or oppression "is to profane that name," OSV News reported. According to France 24/AFP, representatives of Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy and Buddhism in France signed a joint declaration, the "Appel de Metz" (Metz Appeal), calling for interreligious dialogue and peace. At an event on Europe attended by Macron, the pope called for "patient dialogue" and warned against "the illusion that rearmament is the answer," OSV News reported.

His last public event was a Mass for peace and justice at St. Stephen's Cathedral, which began at 4:04 p.m. local time (10:04 a.m. ET). France 24/AFP reported about 35,000 people in the cathedral and nearby parts of the city centre, "according to the Vatican citing an estimate by local authorities." Macron attended. According to the Holy See's text, the homily took Isaiah's images of the desert, the garden and the house. The pope said peace, a gift from God, "requires a response from human beings through combined effort." He told the people of the Moselle region that "it is not true that those who seek revenge are stronger than those who forgive." The cathedral has 6,500 square metres of stained glass. Pointing to it, he said God's light "does not erase our unique identities" and that "Europe's future does not lie in uniformity, but in the harmony of differences." He called Metz "a beacon of hope for this country, for Europe and for the world."

Vatican News said about 80 journalists were on the flight home. It published a working transcript of the press conference. Among the pope's other answers:

He said the four days "were literally filled with many blessings," singling out Lourdes and the 80,000 young people at the Stade de France.

A reporter from Le Pèlerin asked about end-of-life law and France's principle of laïcité. The pope said he had not crossed the line between Church and state. "When the Church speaks about defending life," he said, "we're not entering into politics, we're applying the Gospel to people's lives."

A reporter from the Spanish daily El País asked about housing costs and evictions. The pope said "we really need to examine the systemic cause of this problem."

A reporter from the Italian news agency ANSA asked about war and rearmament. He said "a small number of people are becoming immensely wealthy from an industry that promotes war." He said the Church will keep inviting leaders, "such as those of Russia and Ukraine," to talk. "We cannot force anyone," he said.

A reporter from the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) asked about artificial intelligence (AI). "Am I in panic mode? No, I'm not. I sleep at night," he said. He added that experts' concerns "should be taken seriously" and that he is "relatively optimistic."

A reporter from the German Catholic news agency KNA asked about a visit to Germany. He said he has an invitation but no schedule, and that "the only trip definitely planned" for next year is World Youth Day in Korea.