Visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lourdes: interviews with victims and speeches on the end of life

A meeting behind closed doors, without cameras or microphones. Still in Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), Léon XIV will speak at the end of the day, Sunday September 27, with seven victims of sexual violence perpetrated within the Church. “Everyone participates in this meeting in their own name, free to speak, their beliefs and their choices,” warned the victims in a press release. Among them, Jean-Marie Delbos, victim of the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, Bertrand Virieux, victim of priest Bernard Preynat, or even a victim of Abbot Pierre who remained anonymous.

“What is legal is not necessarily moral,” the pope insists. During a speech in front of the Accueil Notre-Dame establishment in Lourdes on Sunday afternoon, Leo XIV considered that it was "impossible to consider it normal to kill". These comments come as Parliament voted for a text on assisted dying two months ago.

During a giant open-air mass in Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées) on Sunday morning, the pope called for “peace” and “dialogue”. Around 200,000 people gathered in front of the sanctuary to listen to the pope. Among them, Michelle Sabatté, the dean of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, who will celebrate her 108th birthday, and who made the trip specially by ambulance.

This is the epilogue of Pope Leo XIV's visit to France. Monday, the sovereign pontiff passes through Lorraine for a final, eminently political day in France. Under the eyes of Emmanuel Macron, he will develop his thoughts on European construction and its central role in the peace that has reigned in Western Europe for 80 years.