{
  "id": 10181504,
  "title": "Pope to meet victims of clerical sex abuse on France trip",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/pope-to-meet-victims-of-clerical-sex-abuse-on-france-trip",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-27T09:14:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Local France",
    "slug": "the-local-france",
    "url": "https://www.thelocal.fr/20260927/pope-to-meet-victims-of-clerical-sex-abuse-on-france-trip"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Pope Leo XIV is on a four-day official visit to France, the first papal trip there in nearly two decades. He arrived in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes on Saturday evening and held an open-air mass for hundreds of thousands of worshippers.\n\nOn Sunday, the Pope is meeting privately with seven victims of clerical sex abuse. According to a 2021 inquiry, clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France over 70 years. One of the victims meeting the Pope is a former pupil of the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a boarding school at the centre of widespread accusations of physical and sexual abuse.\n\nThe Pope's visit comes at a significant time in France, months ahead of a presidential election. During his visit, he prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 to a peasant girl, later canonised as Saint Bernadette. The Local France reports that the Pope waved at believers on his way to mass on Sunday.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 6,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Pope to meet with victims of clerical sex abuse during France trip",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/pope-to-meet-with-victims-of-clerical-sex-abuse-during-france-trip",
        "published": "2026-09-27T08:03:28.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Malay Mail",
        "title": "Pope to meet clerical sex abuse victims during landmark France trip",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/pope-to-meet-clerical-sex-abuse-victims-during-landmark-france-trip",
        "published": "2026-09-27T08:07:20.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Local France",
        "title": "Pope to meet victims of clerical sex abuse on France trip",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/pope-to-meet-victims-of-clerical-sex-abuse-on-france-trip-10184779",
        "published": "2026-09-27T09:14:07.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Punch Nigeria",
        "title": "Pope to meet victims of clerical sex abuse on France trip",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/pope-to-meet-victims-of-clerical-sex-abuse-on-france-trip-10181948",
        "published": "2026-09-27T09:32:10.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "France 24",
        "title": "The week in pictures: Trump hosts Xi, the pope visits France and floods ravage Thailand",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/the-week-in-pictures-trump-hosts-xi-the-pope-visits-france-and-floods",
        "published": "2026-09-27T10:05:49.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}