Pope Leo, who ascended to the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in May 2025, has drawn massive crowds across France during his landmark four-day official visit to the historically Catholic nation, while delivering a forceful call to root out pervasive clergy sexual abuse within the country’s church institutions.
On the third day of the tour, the pontiff addressed a closed-door gathering of French bishops at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, the revered Catholic pilgrimage site in southern France. Ahead of his scheduled private meeting with survivors of clerical abuse, Pope Leo pressed church leaders to maintain unwavering focus on confronting the crisis that has rocked the French Catholic community for decades.
“You have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy or within an ecclesial context,” the Pope told the assembly, whose prepared remarks were later released to media outlets. “It is important to persevere along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance.”
The pontiff’s urgent appeal comes five years after a devastating 2021 independent inquiry documented that an estimated 330,000 children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy or lay church members across France over a 70-year period. Following his address to bishops, Pope Leo led a public Mass before thousands of gathered worshippers at the Lourdes shrine, with a private meeting with abuse survivors planned for immediately after the service.
The crowds that have turned out for the Pope’s visit have been staggering. A day before the Lourdes events, an estimated 700,000 people packed Paris’s Place de la Concorde to hear the pontiff speak. Earlier that day, as Pope Leo traveled down the iconic Champs-Élysées in his open-top popemobile, throngs of cheering supporters lined the route, waving to the leader of the global Catholic Church as he greeted well-wishers. That same Friday, the Pope also held an official meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the start of his visit.
During a public Mass in Paris the previous Saturday, Pope Leo used his address to encourage French Catholics to share their faith openly with broader society, urging attendees not to keep their beliefs private. “Catholics should not keep their faith to themselves but let it overflow so that those you meet may be refreshed,” he told the congregation. He also reserved special remarks for young people in attendance, framing youth as the core of the contemporary Church. “How beautiful it is to see your enthusiasm, energy and commitment, and the joy you bring to Christian communities,” he said.
The Pope’s visit unfolds against a shifting backdrop for Catholicism in modern France, a country that maintains an officially secular political system but retains deep historical religious roots. Long-term trends have shown sharp decline in church participation: the share of the French population that attends regular worship fell from 35% in 1960 to less than 5% in recent years, and the total number of active priests has shrunk by two-thirds, dropping from 25,000 in 1990 to fewer than 9,000 today.
Yet there are early signs of a small but notable renewal of interest. Over the past five years, the number of adult baptisms in France has more than doubled, reaching 10,000 in 2025, according to recent church data.
Looking ahead to the final day of the visit Sunday, Pope Leo is scheduled to meet with staff and residents at a Lourdes healthcare facility before taking part in the traditional evening torchlight procession at the shrine. Visits to France by sitting popes have long been a regular occurrence, reflecting the nation’s enduring place in global Catholic history.