Pope Leo XIV spent Sunday at the Marian shrine in Lourdes, shifting his four-day French tour from the spectacle of Paris to a pilgrimage site long associated with healing and, in this visit, with the church's reckoning over clerical sexual abuse. The Vatican's published schedule placed a morning meeting with France's bishops, an open-air Mass on the meadow in front of the basilica, and a private session with survivors later in the day.
From Paris crowds to the Pyrenees
The pontiff arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening after the largest event of his trip: an outdoor Mass that stretched along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. French authorities and organizers estimated roughly 800,000 attendees, about 200,000 more than had registered in advance. Reuters and other agencies described chants of support along the two-kilometre route as Leo traveled in an open popemobile from the Place de la Concorde toward the Arc de Triomphe.
In his homily on Saturday, Leo urged Catholics to seek happiness in faith rather than material comfort, a theme he has repeated since landing in France on Thursday. The visit also included stops at UNESCO headquarters, Notre-Dame Cathedral and a youth vigil at the Stade de France before the Paris Mass.
Sunday programme at Lourdes
According to the Holy See's itinerary, Leo met bishops of the French Episcopal Conference in the Saint Bernadette auditorium at 9:00 a.m. local time. At 11:00 a.m. he celebrated Mass on the prairie facing the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, an event French media said could draw on the order of 150,000 pilgrims.
The Associated Press reported that Leo would meet a group of seven French survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy on Sunday, continuing a practice he has maintained on overseas journeys. Victims' advocates published an open letter in Libération questioning how participants were selected and urging the church to stop acting as both judge and party in abuse cases; the Vatican has not responded to that criticism in detail.
Leo prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle on Saturday night and drank from the spring, a ritual familiar to millions of visitors to the shrine. His schedule also included evening rosary prayers and a torchlight procession.
Life ethics and church standing
Throughout the trip Leo has stressed Catholic teaching on protecting life from conception to natural death, including firm opposition to euthanasia and medically assisted dying. France is debating end-of-life legislation, and the pope's Lourdes appearance underscored how he is using symbolic locations to reinforce that message.
The visit is Leo's first to France since his election and the first papal journey to Paris since 2008. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted him at the Élysée Palace on Thursday. After Lourdes, Leo is scheduled to travel to Metz on Monday before returning to Rome.
What comes next
Organizers will watch whether survivor meetings produce any public statement beyond the Vatican's usual confidentiality around private pastoral encounters. For French Catholics, the tour mixes renewal messaging with reminders of abuse scandals that have eroded trust. Leo's next fixed public event on the published calendar is Monday's Mass at Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Metz, followed by a farewell ceremony at Metz-Nancy-Lorraine Airport in the evening.