Pope pledges action on clergy child abuse in meeting with French survivors
Head of the Roman Catholic Church holds 'emotional' two-hour meeting with seven abuse victims in French town of Lourdes.
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Head of the Roman Catholic Church holds 'emotional' two-hour meeting with seven abuse victims in French town of Lourdes.
Vatican estimates 700,000 people in attendance as the Catholic religious leader continues four-day tour of France.
Pope Leo on Saturday celebrated an open-air mass in front of hundreds of thousands of faithful in Paris after riding in the Popemobile along the iconic Champs Elysees to the cheers of huge crowds clutching French and Vatican flags. The leader of the worldโs 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit to France in nearly two decades. In the highlight of the visitโs second day, the 71-year-old pope led...
Itโs been a week of walkouts, power plays and diplomatic theatre โ from a battle over press freedom in Washington, to a United Nations General Assembly marked by protests and departures, as leaders clashed over Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. There was also a rare red-carpet meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, as the US and China extended their trade truce and turned their attention to the race for dominance in artificial intelligence. And from the geopolitical to the spiritual, Pope Leo brought his call for restraint and regulation of AI to France, as he sought to position the Vatican as a moral voice in a rapidly changing world.
Watch our special FRANCE 24 edition as Pope Leo XIV leads Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral on September 25 during his visit to Paris. Our journalists followed the event live from outside the cathedral, while guests joined us to analyse the significance of this key moment in the pontiff's four-day visit to France.
Watch our special FRANCE 24 coverage of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Paris as the pontiff travelled through the French capital in the popemobile on his way to Notre-Dame Cathedral, where our journalist Claire Paccalin was reporting live. During the special edition, Father Michael Baggot, professor of theology, also analysed the images and explained why Pope Leo XIV has made transhumanism and the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence a recurring theme of his pontificate.
Alison Sargent is pleased to welcome Andrea Antonio Verardi, Professor of Church History and Cultural Heritage at the Pontifical Gregorian University. According to Verardi, Pope Leoโs visit to France is much more than a diplomatic visit. The focus of the visit combines three key issues: the search for peace amid geopolitical instability, the challenge that artificial intelligence and technological change pose to humanity and human dignity, and the unexpected re-emergence of religious identification among younger generations in a deeply secular society.
Popeย Leo XIV flies to France on Friday for the Vatican's first state visit to the European nation in 18 years, with artificial intelligence and young believers near the top of his agenda.ย President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will be on the tarmac to greet the 71-year-oldย pope.ย
It's all about his high holiness here in France. For weeks already, the nation's been abuzz over the upcoming visit of Leo. From Friday evening mass at Notre Dame Cathedral and mass before 600-thousand faithful in Paris to the pilgrimage city of Lourdes and a trip to Metz, hometown of father of European unity Robert Schuman.ย A papal visit to France usually draws much attention to the symbiotic love-hate relationship between the church and a secular state of mostly-lapsed Catholics. And yes, there have been grumblings about the visit's cost to taxpayers. But the pushback's relatively muted. This new American pope seems genuinely popular here in France. We'll ask why.