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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jennifer Rankin

Pope Leo urges healing of ‘deep wounds’ before meeting child sexual abuse survivors in France

Pope Leo XIV waves to worshippers as he arrives on the popemobile in Lourdes, France.
Pope Leo waves from a popemobile in Lourdes. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before meeting survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.

Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.

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