We have a missed meeting with the Holy Father. When taking stock of five years at the head of Inirr (independent national body for recognition and reparation), Marie Derain de Vaucresson regretted the format chosen by Pope Leo XIV, who is to meet in Lourdes, Sunday September 27, seven victims of sexual violence in the Church. “My regret is that we were not able to involve more victims,” explains to franceinfo the president of the body which is giving up its place at the end of the month, since the Inirr is replaced by a new system.
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The sovereign pontiff has actually planned an intimate closed session with the victims for Sunday afternoon. “I understand the inter-individual format” because “to really exchange, you have to be a small number,” she adds. “But I think that between seven people and a little more, we had possibilities,” adds Marie Derain, before regretting that the collectives were not involved before this meeting. “We could also have imagined a message carried by a small number, but built with a much larger number,” she believes, imagining a day organized in two stages “with 250 or 300 people” in Lourdes. “The small limit of the interpersonal encounter is not to go into the field of the systemic dimension.”
“We minimize the systemic nature of sexual violence.”
Marie Derain de Vaucresson
at franceinfo
“These are individuals who are chosen, we disconnect the collective,” also protested Alain Esquerre, spokesperson for the main collective of victims of Bétharram. “We have not even had a response to our request, it is a gigantic charade, there will be no appeasement, I am extremely disappointed but not surprised,” reacted Philippe Carré, representative of an association which has identified more than 300 victims in around fifty establishments of the private Catholic network La Salle. He considers that the bishops “knowingly selected isolated victims”.
“Everyone participates in this meeting in their own name”
The seven "elected" for this meeting defuse by explaining that they do not constitute "a delegation of the Church". “We do not claim to represent all the victims, nor those who will not be present in Lourdes,” they specify in a joint press release. Those selected prepared for the papal interview during a day on September 14, in the presence of representatives of the Conference of Bishops of France. “Everyone participates in this meeting in their own name, free to speak, their beliefs and their choices,” they assure.
“Dialogue does not mean endorsement. Being received does not mean renouncing our demands.”
Participants in the planned meeting with the Pope
In a press release
How were the victims chosen? “It seemed obvious from the start that the pope was going to meet victims of sexual abuse,” assured Pierre-Antoine Bozo, spokesperson for the conference of bishops of France, at a press conference. According to him, it was the pope who chose a meeting in small committee with seven people, "selected based on fairly simple criteria: men and women, victims of abuse at a minor or adult age, victims of abuse in the school, parish, diocesan environment, for the fairest possible representation."
Among the victims, only five of them chose to reveal their identity. Jean-Marie Delbos is one of the alumni of the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, of which more than 200 students filed complaints of physical and sexual violence between 1956 and the mid-2000s. “I am going to ask him, given his powers, to dissolve the congregation of the fathers of Bétharram,” he declared on M6. Véronique Garnier, victim of a priest in her parish at the age of 13, is co-responsible for a minor protection service in the diocese of Orléans.
Jérôme Guillement was the victim of a Vendée priest as a teenager and has recounted his journey in several books. Olivier Mardi is the co-founder of Voix Libérations de Touraine, a collective of victims of Father Tartu within the choir of “Petits Chanteurs de Touraine” in the 1960s-1980s. According to Christian Gueritauld, the president of the Voix Libérations de Touraine association, the choice of Olivier Mardi as spokesperson was made "with the victims at the center and democratically".
Bertrand Virieux is co-founder of the former Lyon association La Parole Libéré bringing together victims of the priest Bernard Preynat, sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison and dead in 2024. The two other participants chose to remain anonymous, even if the press release specifies the presence of a victim of Abbé Pierre.
“There is still a way to go”
Beyond the casting of the meeting, it is above all the words of the Pope which will be scrutinized by the collectives. During the Inirr press conference, several victims were able to express themselves regarding the messages they would like to convey to Leo XIV. "There is still a way to go. What I would say to the Holy Father is 'continue learning to listen. You are on the right path, but you are not there yet'", declared Eric, who also said he was "satisfied" with the very existence of this meeting because "the victims' words will be heard".
“I would tell him to review the sexuality courses at the seminary, not to ordain certain priests too quickly,” also said Cécile Reneaume, 34 years old. The victims were indeed invited by the conference of bishops of France to write a letter to the pope, but Cécile is not convinced by the approach: "I am afraid that it will not be read or not heard."
Pierre wrote for his part to the Vatican, specifically to the pontifical commission for the protection of minors, in order to ask the ecclesial authorities to keep track of the abuse he suffered. “Our stories must not be in vain. And they must be in archives to protect other people,” he explains.
“Pope Leo, what are you doing to stop the ecosystems of silence implemented at all levels?”
Pierre, victim of sexual violence
at a press conference
“Finally, what do we do with the words of victims?”, also asks Brigitte Navail, a 69-year-old victim interviewed by franceinfo. “If it does not change theology, pastoral practices, liturgical practices, the training of priests... then our words will have been sound. This is what I would have liked to be able to work on with the pope.”
France’s “little head start”
Marie Derain, for her part, wishes to invite the sovereign pontiff to look at France's "small step ahead" on the subject of sexual violence, with the existence of recognition bodies such as the Inirr, set up in the wake of the Sauvé report, which estimated the number of victims in the Church since 1950 at 330,000. This experience "should encourage the Vatican to loudly and clearly express the desire to continue to get to the truth" on this reality.
At the time of taking stock, the president of the body specifies that Inirr has been contacted by 1,969 people since its creation and that 1,184 decisions have been rendered. A third of the victims are women and the average age of people bringing the case has fallen to 56 years in 2025 (compared to 64 in 2022). As for financial reparations, they reached 36,739 euros on average last year.
