Seven survivors of sexual violence in the Catholic Church who are due to meet Pope Leo XIV during his visit to France later this month have insisted the talks will not weaken their demands, as five publicly identified themselves on Wednesday.
The group will meet the Pope privately in Lourdes, in south-western France, on 27 September.
Two participants will remain anonymous, including a person who says they were abused by Abbé Pierre, the late French Catholic priest and founder of the Emmaus charity movement who has been accused of sexually abusing women and girls.
“Dialogue does not mean endorsement. Being received does not mean giving up our demands,” the seven said in a joint statement.
The planned meeting has drawn criticism from survivor groups that were not invited, with some questioning its limited format and how the church selected the participants.
Seven individual voices
“We do not constitute a church delegation and we do not claim to represent all victims, nor those who will not be present in Lourdes,” the group said.
Each person would participate in their own name, they said, free to express their views, convictions and choices.
Five participants have identified themselves, including Jean-Marie Delbos, a survivor of abuse at Bétharram, the Catholic school at the centre of a major abuse scandal in France; Véronique Garnier, a survivor and member of the Faith and Resilience survivors' group; and Jérôme Guillement, who was abused by a priest in the Vendée region.
The other two are Olivier Mardi, who was abused by Bernard Tartu, a priest later found guilty by a Church tribunal of sexually abusing minors in a boys' choir in the Tours region, and Bertrand Virieux, who was abused by the late Bernard Preynat, a Lyon priest who was jailed for sexually assaulting children in a Scout group.
Both men co-founded groups representing survivors of the abuse.
The decision of the remaining two participants to stay anonymous “must be fully respected”, the statement said.
Questions for the Pope
The seven began preparing for the talks on Monday with representatives of the French Bishops' Conference and the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France. Gérard Le Stang, the bishop of Amiens, also took part.
The discussions helped them identify the main questions they want to raise with the Pope, while respecting differences between them, the survivors said in their statement.
They described the private audience as “a particularly important moment” and said they would now focus on preparing for it.
“None of us will give an interview or make a statement before the meeting,” the group said. They plan to speak afterwards, “each with their own voice, their own story and what they wish to share about it”.
The Pope will visit Paris, Lourdes and Metz from 25 to 28 September.
A poll published on Tuesday found that 15 percent of people in France named tackling and preventing sexual abuse within the church as the issue they most wanted him to address, behind peace and conflicts around the world at 28 percent.
(with newswires)
