In France, Pope Leo XIV will meet seven sexual abuse victims, but not the Bétharram group

Pope Leo XIV will meet seven victims of sexual abuse in the Church during his visit to Lourdes on Sept. 27, but the main Bétharram victims’ collective will not be among them. The group reacted with “consternation” and denounced what its spokesman called “institutional contempt.”

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We wanted a collective process to speak on behalf of all the victims and obtain two things from the pope: for him to testify to the Church’s shame, and above all, to propose an action plan.

The French bishops’ conference said the Church received about 40 requests, including around a dozen from collectives. It said the pope wanted to encourage personal exchanges, limiting the meeting to seven people. The gathering will be private and held without cameras. The bishops’ conference said the participants themselves will decide how the meeting is communicated publicly, and it will not disclose the group’s composition.

Alain Esquerre, spokesman for the Bétharram collective, said he did not know whether former pupils from the institution who are outside the group would be among those received. “We wanted a collective process to speak on behalf of all the victims and obtain two things from the pope: for him to testify to the Church’s shame, and above all, to propose an action plan,” he told AFP.

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Institutional contempt

Esquerre described the selection process as “institutional contempt” and a “competition among victims,” saying individual meetings held “behind closed doors” showed that the Church was still not ready to address what he called a systemic problem. The Sud-Ouest newspaper, however, reported that one Bétharram victim would meet the pope after being contacted directly by the bishops’ conference, despite not requesting the meeting. The report said the other victims would come from different parts of France, including one from Brittany.

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A competition among victims

Philippe Chemineau, president of an association representing victims of Lasallian Catholic schools, also said he was “very disappointed” not to receive an invitation. The bishops’ conference said members of victim groups would be included and that the seven-person group would represent varied experiences, including men and women, people who were minors or adults at the time of the abuse, different regions, and different Church settings such as schools, parishes and congregations.

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Very disappointed