More than 1,000 join March for Life in Vilnius, Lithuania
VILNIUS, Lithuania — More than 1,000 pro-life advocates gathered in Vilnius on Sept. 26 for the country’s second March for Life, braving cold winds, morning rain, and autumn fog to affirm the dignity and value of every human life.
Families, students, and older people joined a warmly spirited program of personal testimonies, hopeful speeches, and musical performances celebrating life.
The march took place amid continuing political debate in Lithuania over family policy and declining birth rates. Lawmakers also remain divided over reproductive legislation, including access to abortion and in vitro fertilization.
Organizers stressed that the event sought to move beyond abstract slogans and political declarations by focusing on the realities of family life. Speakers addressed motherhood, fatherhood, and the challenges posed by child loss, disability, illness, and old age.
Throughout the march, participants and speakers affirmed the equal dignity of every person — especially unborn children — regardless of health, age, or ethnicity.
Saulius Karosas, a father, illustrated that conviction by describing how welcoming children with special needs reshaped his family’s outlook. After their fourth child, Iva, was born with Down syndrome, the family adopted Motiejus, a boy with the same condition. Karosas said embracing the children transformed the family’s understanding of human worth and beauty and how they recognize the value of others.
Courage and perseverance
The event also drew pro-life advocates from across Europe and the Americas. Featured speakers included Agnese Irbe, OFS, founder of Latvia’s Peripatos Philosophers’ Association; Marcin Perłowski, director of the Polish pro-life foundation Centrum Życia i Rodziny; and Patricia Sandoval, an international pro-life speaker and co-host of EWTN’s “Informe Provida.”
Sandoval described the Vilnius march as deeply moving. “I was impressed by the zeal of the youth that attended the march,” she told EWTN News, noting that they were “on the front line.” She recalled the peaceful atmosphere, in which participants sang “hymns and songs of joy,” and praised the event as “very well organized.”
Sandoval, who shared her testimony of undergoing three abortions and later working for Planned Parenthood, said speaking in Vilnius held particular significance. “Vilnius is the city of mercy,” she said, describing the opportunity to share her story as “a very emotional and very exciting moment.”
Offering spiritual encouragement to participants, Sandoval urged advocates to remain strong regardless of political outcomes. “Remain steadfast, persevere, and be faithful to do his will,” she said.
From Christian witness to practical help
Speaking to EWTN News, Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius said he hoped the event would help “a culture of life grow in Lithuania” — one in which every “human being is welcomed as a gift from the very beginning of life.”
For Grušas, that culture must be experienced concretely. “I would be especially glad to see a practical change,” he said, so that “a woman who feels anxious about her pregnancy knows where to turn, finds someone who will listen, and receives the support she needs.” He also said he hoped “families feel supported by their communities, employers, and public institutions.”
“We build a culture of life through many everyday decisions,” he said. In a city known as the “City of Mercy,” he added: “I hope mothers, children, and families will increasingly experience that mercy here.”
The archbishop also pointed to the responsibility of men. “A man’s steady presence can make an enormous difference,” he said, describing fatherhood as beginning before a child is born through “supporting the mother, listening to her, sharing her concerns, and preparing together to welcome the child.”
Grušas cited St. Joseph as a model of quiet responsibility. “He speaks no words in the Gospels, yet his care for Mary and Jesus is unmistakable.”
He described the march as “Christian witness with a civic dimension,” saying Catholics can participate in public life while seeking the common good. “We must keep in view both the dignity of the unborn child and the real needs of the mother,” he said, calling for public conversation “grounded in respect and followed by practical help.”
Builders of a culture of life
Archbishop Kęstutis Kėvalas of Kaunas told EWTN News at the march that building a culture of life requires men to embrace their roles as “fathers, leaders, and providers.” He urged them to take an active part in their children’s religious upbringing and formation.
That responsibility, he said, belongs to every Christian. Too often, people assume that “somebody else will do this” rather than recognize that “we are the people who need to take personal responsibility in creating the culture of life.”
For Kėvalas, this means fostering “prayer groups, family movements, and also the consciousness of the culture of life.” Christians, he added, are called to become “collaborators of God” in transmitting life and the Gospel of Life.
Asked what most threatens a culture of life, the archbishop pointed beyond individual social trends to “the faith problem.” The deeper question, he said, is whether people understand that “we are given the gift of life” and are called to give others “the possibility of life.”
He also warned against a materialistic mindset in which families “count the cost” of having children primarily in material terms. Greater trust in God, he said, can foster “a culture of trust and encouragement.”
Ultimately, he called Catholics to reject passivity. “We need to be not those who are just looking or observing life, but ones creating life and building the culture,” he said. He compared this vocation to that of the builders of medieval cathedrals, who laid foundations they would never see completed, trusting that their work would contribute to “a beautiful creation.”
Pope Leo: Let Europe’s wounds be ‘openings through which light shines’
METZ, France — The wounds of violence in Europe’s recent past are opportunities to shine light on evil and build a future of harmony, Pope Leo XIV said on Monday.
At the last event of his trip to France, the pope celebrated Mass in the Metz Cathedral, a towering Gothic structure dedicated to St. Stephen and nicknamed “the Good Lord’s lantern” for its large expanse of stained glass — at nearly 70,000 square feet, the most of any medieval religious structure.
“It seems that the builders sought to minimize the walls — which remain solid — so that light might flood in abundantly to the faithful,” the pope said.
“As we contemplate these stained-glass windows, we learn that Europe’s future does not lie in uniformity but in the harmony of differences, where the wounds of the past become openings through which light shines,” he said.
The Vatican said 35,000 Catholics from Metz and the neighboring areas participated in the Mass both inside the cathedral and in the surrounding streets, watching large screens. Participants described taking a day off of work or school for the occasion.
“It’s great to be able to come celebrate peace and meet all the Christians who’ve come for the occasion, and to feel that we’re all together, united for the same cause and the same values,” 20-year-old fine arts student Humbeline Deville said.
“The fact that he chose this city … and that he did us the honor of coming here is truly important to us,” said Hassina Boulariah as she walked toward the city center almost four hours before the start of Mass.
Inside the cathedral, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, sat in the front row.
Metz, a city in northeastern France, sits just 27 miles from the Schengen tripoint, where the borders of Luxembourg, France, and Germany meet.
The Franco-German area is rich in significance for European history: It was annexed by the German Empire at the turn of the 20th century and later by Nazi Germany during World War II. Metz was also home to Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
In the Church, it is also remembered as the historical birthplace of Gregorian chant — “Metssine Chant” (also called “Metz singing”) — which developed during the eighth-century Carolingian Renaissance.
In his homily at Mass, Pope Leo recalled the history of the territory, especially the “fratricidal conflicts” that tore it apart.
Those who are from this land, he said, “know full well that it is not true that those who seek revenge are stronger than those who forgive.”
Leo said “it takes strength and great integrity not to be overwhelmed by evil, especially when the wounds inflicted are deep. However, in the face of injustice, humanity’s only path to salvation is a love that cares for others and seeks to give trust regardless of the circumstances, even when confronted with the most difficult behavior to accept.”
“In a world marked by so much violence, manipulation, and arrogance at various levels, Jesus teaches us how to transform deserts into oases, to plant gardens, and to build homes. He shows us the path that leads through forgiveness, mercy, and magnanimity,” he said.
Yvette Bisiaux pushed her adult daughter Sandrine Coquelet to the Mass in a wheelchair: “We live here, so we said, ‘Let’s go!’” she said.
Bisiaux added that she was “really moved” by the pope’s speech to the sick in Lourdes on Sept. 27. “I had tears in my eyes. It was so, so beautiful, so true.”
In his homily, the pontiff cited St. Augustine’s “The City of God,” noting that the bishop of Hippo “defined the peace of the heavenly city as a harmonious communion in which people find joy in God and in one another through him.”
St. Augustine “also described peace among people as the fruit of a “tranquillitas ordinis,” whereby each person recognizes and respects the unique and sacred dignity and role of others,” Leo added.
“Here in Metz, it is worth recalling that these are precisely the values upon which the Europe we know has been built over the centuries, with its spiritual and moral heritage preceding its economic and political heritage,” he said.
The pontiff recalled that it has never been easy to be faithful to these principles, including for those who came before us.
“Nevertheless, through faithfulness and perseverance, our ancestors bequeathed them to us as treasures to be passed on in turn to future generations, and enriched by our experience, the value of our efforts and our stories,” he said.
Before Mass, people awaiting the pope waved French or regional flags. German flags also dotted the crowds, which included enthusiastic scouts in uniform, older people seated on portable stools, and young adults embracing.
Some tired teenagers napped on the stone path of the historic outdoor market next to the cathedral.
The teens’ mother, Marion Bertagnolio, said it was worth it to take a day off from her job as a physics professor to attend the Mass.
“We are Catholics, and itʼs too important to me to come here to pray with him, to see him,” said Bertagnolio, who came with her husband and four of her six children, ages 10 to 19.
She said she hoped Leo could bring a message of peace to France, especially with presidential elections early next year. She also mentioned divisions with the country’s Catholic community, particularly over the Traditional Latin Mass.
“I hope [the pope’s] message will change our hearts” to be more united, she said.
Venue selected for beatification of Georgia Martyrs
The beatification of the 16th-century Franciscan missionaries known as the “Georgia Martyrs” will be held at the convention center in Savannah, Georgia, on Oct. 31.
The Order of Friars Minor announced the venue in a Sept. 26 statement. About 12,000 people are expected to attend the event.
The beatification Mass is set for 11 a.m., and no ticket is necessary, organizers said. Registration is required by Sept. 30.
Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of Savannah said the beatification will be “a date of great significance for the faithful within the Diocese of Savannah and the Archdiocese of Atlanta.”
Cardinal Frank Leo, metropolitan archbishop of Toronto, will serve as papal legate and preside over the beatification liturgy on All Hallows Eve. The beatification will be livestreamed on EWTN.
A Mass of Thanksgiving is set for 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 at Savannah’s Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.
Who are the Georgia Martyrs?
In September 1597, Father Pedro de Corpa, Father Blas Rodríguez, Father Miguel de Añon, Brother Antonio de Badajóz, and Father Francisco de Veráscola were killed for defending the sanctity of marriage. They died in the region called La Florida, which included present-day Georgia.
The U.S. bishops petitioned Pope Pius XII to beatify the missionaries in 1941, and the cause officially began in the Diocese of Savannah in 1981. In January 2025, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of a decree recognizing the five Franciscans as martyrs for Christ who were killed for their faith after ministering among the Guale people.
The late Father Dominic Monti, OFM, a historian and vice postulator for the cause, said in a statement: “These were not ‘missions’ like those that were established later in California, where native people were gathered together under friar supervision. The Guale were already living in towns; the friars were welcomed into these villages by local chiefs and lived among the people. This model of evangelization resembled more contemporary methods.”
The friars learned the Guale language and lived peacefully among the people without Spanish soldiers. Monti said archaeological evidence shows “a blending of native and Christian motifs, showing that the Christian faith was thoroughly accepted by the native people.”
In 1597, Juanillo, the young heir to a Guale chiefdom, wanted to take a second wife. Friar Pedro de Corpa opposed the second marriage. He also made his opposition to Juanillo’s succession as chief known.
Juanillo, together with a band of like-minded allies, resorted to violence and killed Pedro de Corpa, OFM, on Sept. 14, 1597. The group then proceeded to other local missions, killing four other friars in the area.
A local chief urged Father Miguel de Añon and Brother Antonio de Badajóz to flee, but the unarmed friars disregarded the warning. A sixth friar, Francisco de Avila, was kidnapped and tortured until he was liberated months later, according to the order.
Father Roger Lopez, OFM, is a provincial councilor for the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, part of the Order of Friars Minor, which has worked with the Diocese of Savannah to promote the Georgia Martyrs’ cause for canonization since the mid-20th century.
Lopez said: “The beatification of our brothers, Pedro de Corpa and Companions, stands as a profound message to the Church in America — that the love of Christ Jesus is more powerful than hatred. In every age, the use of force and violence are the weapons used by leaders to silence the Gospel of truth and peace. Such was the result for our friars four centuries ago in the present state of Georgia.”
Lopez said the Georgia Martyrs “invite all people of America to lay aside weapons of death and division. Their blood calls us to recommit to Jesus Christ’s Gospel of peaceful dialogue, mutual respect, and forgiveness in our families, country, and world.”
The grotto and the Gospel: Why the Church preserves Lourdes without adding to revelation
When Pope Leo XIV arrived as a pilgrim at the Grotto of Massabielle on Sept. 27, his presence highlighted a foundational question for Catholics: If divine revelation is complete in Jesus Christ, why does the Church recognize and promote a shrine born of private apparitions?
The answer rests on the Churchʼs crucial distinction between the closed deposit of public revelation and the subordinate, pastoral role of private revelations.
The unrepeatable fullness of public revelation
A fundamental Catholic doctrine is the conviction that Godʼs self-communication reached its complete fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
As the Second Vatican Councilʼs Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, teaches, after speaking through the prophets, “in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb 1:1-2). Christ is “the mediator and fullness of all revelation,” completing salvation through his words, deeds, death, and resurrection.
Consequently, the council declares that “no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This boundary is firm.
In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, the council reiterates that the faithful do not accept “a new public revelation as pertaining to the divine deposit of faith.”
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes, and as commentary surrounding the popeʼs visit has noted, the Church has not received a single new revealed truth since the death of the last apostle.
No vision or apparition in history adds a single word to what was handed down through the apostles (Nos. 65-67).
The nature and limits of private revelation
How, then, does the Church view the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes?
The Church categorizes events like Lourdes as “private revelation.”
According to the catechism, private revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church, "do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christʼs definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history” (CCC, No. 67).
Because private revelations do not form part of mandatory doctrine, no Catholic is obliged to believe in the apparitions of Lourdes.
Church approval does not elevate an apparition to the level of dogma. Rather, such revelations remain private, nonbinding, and matters of prudent belief.
Pastoral discernment: Testing the Spirit
To protect the faithful from credulity, the Church approaches claims of apparitions with strict vigilance.
Dei Verbum states that the Churchʼs teaching authority serves the word of God by “guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully” in accordance with its divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, in Lumen Gentium, the council notes that, regarding extraordinary gifts, “judgment as to their genuineness and proper use belongs to those who are appointed leaders in the Church,” whose task is “to test all things and hold fast to what is good” (No. 12).
This principle guided the Churchʼs evaluation of St. Bernadette Soubirous' reports of apparitions in 1858.
A four-year investigation examined Bernadetteʼs character, psychological state, doctrinal orthodoxy, and the spiritual fruits associated with the apparitions, including conversions and healings. In 1862, the local bishop concluded that the faithful were justified in believing the apparitions to be authentic.
Pointing back to the Gospel
Authentic apparitions never supplant Christ. Rather, they direct believers back to sacred Scripture and the sacraments.
In his homily at Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV observed: “This Sundayʼs readings touch on a central part of the message that the Virgin Mary entrusted to St. Bernadette: the call to conversion, both tender and urgent.”
Maryʼs statements to Bernadette, including “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next” and “Penance! Penance! Penance!” echo the central demands of the Gospel, the pope said.
This understanding of Maryʼs role aligns with Lumen Gentium, which teaches that the “maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power” (No. 60).
The council adds that “all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure” (No. 60).
A signpost to eternal life
When Pope Leo XIV knelt at Massabielle as “a pilgrim among pilgrims,” he demonstrated the Churchʼs authentic approach to private revelation.
Popes do not go to Lourdes to seek new doctrine. Rather, they go to witness, as Pope Leo noted, how “the miracle of Lourdes is that it can awaken the joy of hope in the very midst of suffering and hardship.”
By affirming Lourdes without adding to revelation, the Church ensures that the grotto remains a signpost pointing souls back to the definitive word spoken in Jesus Christ.
Vatican aims for an Oscar with the story of Giacomo Mattivi
For the first time in history, the Vatican is aiming for an Oscar nomination with “Green Lava,” a 39-minute documentary recounting the life of Giacomo Mattivi. The 25-year-old Italian man suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His older brother had the same condition and died following a respiratory crisis.
“Giacomo was in the same room and saw him die. The documentary unflinchingly portrays that moment and the suffering it caused him, also aware that his own future is also marked by the disease. Yet, alongside death, there is also resurrection. In a way, that is the cross running through the entire story, because Giacomo finds the strength not to let himself be defeated and to keep moving forward,” Lia Beltrami, who co-directed the documentary with Ali Aksu, explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.
Giacomo Mattivi’s daily life
The production follows the daily life of this highly intelligent young man with exquisite sensitivity as he dreams of becoming a sociologist while not shying away from the progressive physical deterioration he has endured.
Over the course of more than two decades, the disease has caused him to lose much of his muscle strength. As a child, he could walk, but today he gets around in a wheelchair. He can barely move his hands and head, just enough to control the wheelchair. Furthermore, he needs to spend many hours connected to a ventilator.
The film “tells the story of a family raising two children with such a severe illness. The parents know their children’s lives will be marked by hardship and will likely be shorter. Even simple activities, like getting up in the morning, require hours of assistance,” Beltrami noted.
Faith and family: The only way to persevere
Despite the severity of the illness, Giacomo’s life is a testament to hope, which the documentary captures well by showing how faith has helped the family persevere. The young man is no longer afraid to face the end of his life head-on, and he has even found meaning in his brother’s death.
He is currently finishing his sociology studies and will dedicate his thesis to the subject of death. “He wants to talk about a reality that is taboo in our society, considering both what might lie beyond death and what happens before reaching it,” the Italian director explained.
The documentary was filmed in the Dolomites, the mountain range in northern Italy where Giacomo lives, and images of pine forests envelop the entire setting.
In fact, the title of the documentary, “Green Lava,” is no coincidence. “For Giacomo, the green of the pines is an essential pillar of his life, while the lava represents the force of a volcano. He feels like a volcano and needs that lava to remain forever alive, never to petrify,” Beltrami explained, evoking the idea that identity must undergo profound, sometimes strange and violent, changes in order to keep growing.
In Hollywood
Last week, the production was presented in Los Angeles as part of the process to qualify for Academy Award consideration. “Green Lava” was screened at the Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills, California, Sept. 18–24.
The film was produced by the Vatican through the company Emotions to Generate Change in collaboration with Vatican News and Vatican Media.
The initiative marks the first time a production linked to the Holy See has entered the Oscars competition. However, “Green Lava” will not compete officially representing the Vatican.
The Best Documentary Short Subject category allows for the entry of independent productions and does not require formal backing from a government or national committee.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Pope Leo: Europe must return to its Christian roots and be open to migrants
METZ, France — Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged Europe to return to its roots, including its Christian heritage, while also engaging with the people from other cultures now living within it.
Referring to the large presence of immigrants in Europe, Leo said: “We must grasp the historical significance of what is taking place, namely an unprecedented encounter between peoples and cultures, which calls us to rediscover our roots in new and creative ways, while at the same time listening carefully to others.”
“The universal character of Europe’s founding values assures us that this dialogue is possible and that it can provide a solid foundation for our societies, enabling us to work more effectively for peace and a reconciled world,” he said Sept. 28.
The pope also encouraged Europe to help migrants enter safely and legally and to integrate into the community “as if they were part of one’s own family.”
The pope addressed European leaders at the Robert Schuman Conference Center in Metz on the final day of his Sept. 25–28 visit to France. The title of the event was “To the Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity.”
Metz is a city just 27 miles from the Schengen tripoint, where the borders of Luxembourg, France, and Germany meet — an area rich in significance for European history.
The city is linked to Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, who lived there and is buried nearby.
Schuman, a French statesman whose leadership was shaped by two world wars and by his Catholic faith, used politics to work for reconciliation among nations. He was declared “venerable” by Pope Francis in 2021 in recognition of his heroic virtues.
“Robert Schuman, who lived through a time of constantly shifting borders, helped to lay the foundations of a Europe that was aware of the urgent need to tear down the walls that were dividing it,” Leo said.
Schuman’s Christian formation, the pontiff continued, “taught him the value of equality, without distinction of race or social class, and the dignity of work. The succession of different national sovereignties taught him the importance of international law and the value of keeping one’s word. … Schuman committed himself to peace and fraternity among peoples who, after having been in conflict for so long, finally recognized their need for each other.”
Among those present in the 1,200-seat auditorium were the heads of the bishops’ conferences of Europe; abbots and abbesses of local monasteries; French President Emmanuel Macron; Prince Albert II and Princess Charlène of Monaco; Grand Duke Guillaume and Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg; Prime Minister Luc Frieden of Luxembourg; and Anke Rehlinger, minister president of Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In today’s multicultural context of Europe, Leo said, it is important to affirm the universal character of values such as those contained in the preamble of the Treaty on European Union: “the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.”
Quoting Schuman, the pope said: “World peace cannot be safeguarded if constructive efforts are not made commensurate with the dangers that threaten it.”
In a closing message to the young people of Europe, he encouraged them to “take up with responsibility the task of promoting peace … Do not give in to the mentality of violence and oppression.”
“Love life at every moment, and do not be afraid of the future! Do not be afraid to start a family, to bring children into the world, to defend the dignity of every person, from the moment of conception to death,” he said.
Interreligious meeting
Earlier in the morning, Pope Leo met in another room of the conference center with the chief rabbi of France and representatives of Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians in France.
After a musical performance, an interreligious declaration was read and signed by the religious leaders present, including Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, president of the French bishops’ conference.
In his message to the assembly, Leo said the greatness of a religion is measured by the way it cares for and protects human beings, including the most vulnerable, from conception to death.
“If the fruitfulness of religious traditions is seen above all in their service of peace and fraternity, it is also expressed in their ability to protect, accompany, and serve life,” he said.
“The greatness of a civilization is not measured by its material achievements but by the way it cares for, protects, and upholds the human person,” the pope said, adding that “religions are guardians of life, for they affirm its sacred value.”
“For those of us who are open to transcendence, our mission is to offer sound points of reference, especially to young people, to help build a communion that respects and upholds the dignity of every human person,” he said.
LIVE UPDATES: Pope Leo XIV in France
Pope Leo meets French abuse victims in Lourdes
LOURDES, France — Pope Leo XIV met seven French victims of clerical sexual abuse on Sunday, making a gesture of solidarity and reconciliation at a shrine world-famous for its healing waters.
The nearly two-hour encounter took place at the residence of the local bishop, where Leo is staying for his two nights at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, one of the victims, Jérôme Guillement, said, “There was something sincere about [Pope Leo]. With him, every word was carefully chosen; every word had meaning. … There were a lot of emotions.”
According to the Holy See Press Office, Leo spent an hour and a half speaking to the four men and three women individually, before addressing them as a group for about 20 minutes and “thanking them for their painful testimony and reaffirming his commitment to ensuring that the harm they experienced is not repeated for others.”
He “expressed his solidarity with them and, through them, with all those who have suffered and continue to suffer from the wounds of abuse,” the statement said.
Leo also prayed with some of the victims.
“I sensed that he was a man of commitment and also a man of resolve,” Olivier Mardi, one of the participants, said after the meeting. “He’s not fooled and knows that these events will continue and that we must remain vigilant… There was an emotional side to it, and at the same time something very powerful when he speaks.”
Five of the seven involved in the meeting revealed their identities ahead of the pope’s trip. Among them was Bertrand Virieux, a victim of ex-priest Bernard Preynat, who in 2020 was sentenced to five years in prison for assaults on young scouts in the Archdiocese of Lyon. Preynat died in 2024.
The Church in France has been grappling with the repercussions of abuse in the wake of an independent commission’s report that hundreds of thousands of children had been abused by clergy and religious over the past 70 years.
The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) published a nearly 2,500-page final report in October 2021, estimating that 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns in France from 1950 to 2020.
It added that when abuse by lay Church workers was also taken into account, “the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period.”
The victims were accompanied by Bishop Gérard Le Stang of Amiens, president of the Council for the Prevention and Combating of Pedophilia within the French bishops’ conference.
Guillement said Leo “felt that the Church in France still had a great deal of work to do” to prevent abuse.
“We talked about prevention as part of a cultural shift at all levels … There are different opinions, but from his perspective, there’s still a systemic dimension at play,” the man added.
According to Mardi, the pontiff “responded well to our very concrete proposals; he knows he has to work with us… He said we need to rekindle hope, and it takes serious commitment to make that happen.”
Pope Leo spoke about the clerical sexual abuse of minors in his address to the French bishops on the morning of Sept. 27.
“In recent years, you have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy or in an ecclesial context,” he said.
The pontiff praised them for their courageous measures to listen, search for truth, justice, forgiveness, and making amends, as well as “a firm commitment to a culture of prevention and protection against these crimes.”
“You must continue along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance,” he said.
Before addressing the bishops, Leo stopped in front of a memorial for victims of child sexual abuse, featuring the brief reflection of an anonymous victim.
“[The victim] will come to understand that it was the entire culture of a system that sought to protect itself rather than protect him,” an inscription on the memorial reads. “And his turmoil continues to deepen around this question: Why can’t justice be done for him? It is so vital to him that he may finally find peace and that the tears of his childhood may cease to flow.”
At an open-air Mass later on Sunday morning, the pope seemed to allude to the clerical abuse crisis, saying in his homily that “In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within [the Church], we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze. Recognizing our own faults is essential to our spiritual growth.”
The pope’s plans for a private conversation with victims ignited controversy among several abuse support groups in France who criticized the format of the meeting and the exclusion of victims’ organizations.
Asked about the criticism, Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, the spokesman of the French bishops’ conference, told journalists that “there are many survivor groups … If all of them had been included or brought together, it would have been a very large format, and it would not have had the same impact.”
“What helps us most in accompanying victims is listening to them. And to do that, you cannot have 50 people sitting in front of you. That is really what the pope wanted,” Bozo said.
The Lourdes shrine was an evocative backdrop for the meeting with abuse victims, since it is among the first shrines to cover artwork by the accused sexual abuser Father Marko Rupnik, currently on trial at the Vatican.
Mosaics by Rupnik on the façade of the Basilica of the Rosary were covered ahead of Leo’s visit and will remain indefinitely hidden.
“It had come to carry such a symbolic burden for victims that, even though many of the people who come to Lourdes are not abuse victims, for those who are, something had to be done,” Bishop Bozo said.
“If it becomes so difficult for people to come to Lourdes, people who should have a privileged place there because they are suffering, then the situation is no longer acceptable,” the spokesman added. “So I think covering the mosaics is a first step. Afterward, something new will have to be proposed, perhaps a new work of art.”
In Metz, Pope Leo steps into Europe’s deepening divide over immigration
METZ, France — The hot-button issue of immigration has invited itself into Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic journey to France, otherwise marked by the defense of human life and the remarkable signs of Catholic revival currently emerging across the country. It could provide one of the most revealing indications yet of how the American pope intends to address a deeply divided Europe.
As Leo prepares to reach Metz, at the crossroads of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, what message can he offer a continent increasingly torn between the Christian imperative to welcome the stranger and growing concerns over the social, cultural, and security consequences of mass immigration?
The balance is particularly difficult to strike, not least for a pope whose experience has been largely shaped by Latin America, where migration raises different demographic and civilizational challenges than in Europe. So far, he has combined strong continuity with Pope Francis’ defense of migrants and a more explicit recognition of the rights of nations, the demands of integration, and the concerns of receiving societies.
It is against this backdrop that Leo is traveling to Metz on Sept. 28 for an interreligious meeting, followed by an address on the “Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity” at the Robert Schuman Conference Centre. He already sent a strong international signal by visiting Maison Bakhita, a Paris center for migrants, on Sept. 26, just one day before the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
At Europe’s crossroads
More than a decade after the 2015 migration crisis, immigration has become one of the defining fault lines of European politics — and increasingly of European Catholicism itself.
That year alone, more than 1.2 million people applied for asylum in the European Union, and migration pressures have remained a major continental issue ever since, with political repercussions still unfolding.
In the weeks preceding Leo’s arrival in Metz, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored two historic victories in regional elections, while in France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National is already well ahead of its rivals in polls for the 2027 presidential election.
The term “remigration” itself, once largely confined to fringe circles, has entered the European political vocabulary, as illustrated by the large-scale “Save Europe Act” campaign, which advocates an end to mass immigration and a policy of remigration. It has already gathered some 750,000 signatures and sparked a confrontation with the European Commission over its attempted registration as a European Citizens’ Initiative.
These mounting tensions are increasingly reflected within the Church itself. While identitarian Catholic voices and platforms have gained visibility on social media, much of the Catholic hierarchy has continued to place strong emphasis on the duty to welcome migrants.
In Germany, Catholic bishops have also repeatedly warned against the AfD and the growing appeal of “remigration,” while Cardinal Gerhard Müller, following the party’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt this month, accused bishops of misusing their spiritual authority by intervening in partisan politics and thereby alienating Catholic AfD voters.
In Italy, meanwhile, Archbishop Giancarlo Perego, head of the bishops’ migration commission, recently accused Giorgia Meloni’s government of placing “borders before people.”
France has been marked by equally heated Catholic debates on the issue over the past decade.
In “Église et immigration: le grand malaise,” published in 2017, conservative writer Laurent Dandrieu accused Church leaders of reducing Catholic teaching to an almost exclusive imperative of welcome while neglecting the major upheavals experienced by local communities.
More recently, Father Benoist de Sinety, in “La Cause du Christ,” attacked the opposite temptation of instrumentalizing Christianity in the service of identitarian politics.
A column published this month in La Nef magazine challenged what it regarded as a false choice between Christian hospitality and attachment to one’s cultural inheritance.
A ‘rupture’ with the previous pontificate?
Pope Leo, however, seems sensitive to the nuances demanded by this growing polarization. While maintaining the firm defense of migrants that characterized Francis’ pontificate, he has also given unusual prominence to the responsibilities of migrants and the legitimate concerns of the societies that receive them.
Barely a month after his election, Leo prayed at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit might “open borders, break down walls,” and overcome the “logic of exclusion” of political nationalisms. Yet, while supporting the U.S. bishops’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies last November, he stated unequivocally that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter,” rejecting the idea that states should have open borders.
This drive for balance was reaffirmed during his visit to the Canary Islands in June, when he invoked the “right not to have to migrate,” warned against the creation of “parallel worlds,” and asserted that host societies must be able to welcome newcomers without “diluting their identity.”
This language has led some Catholic observers, including French Vatican analyst Jean-Marie Guénois, to speak of a “rupture” with his predecessor on immigration. But his approach appears less a break than an attempt to better articulate a tension already present in Catholic doctrine.
A delicate balance
Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself holds together principles that are often separated in today’s debate. It asks wealthier nations to welcome foreigners seeking security and vital resources “to the extent they are able,” while affirming that political authorities may regulate immigration for the sake of the common good. Migrants, in turn, are called to respect the laws as well as the “material and spiritual heritage” of their host country (No. 2241).
The Catholic Church therefore establishes moral obligations without prescribing minimum or maximum thresholds. Such teaching inevitably requires prudential judgments concerning integration, security, social cohesion, and the common good — precisely the areas over which Catholics today are most deeply divided.
At a time when Europe’s migration debate is hardening and divisions are deepening to the point of threatening the unity of the Church, the question is no longer simply whether Catholics should welcome the stranger or defend the continuity of nations and cultures. It is whether the Church can speak credibly both to Europeans who feel dispossessed of their future and to the migrant who, more often than not, does not know Christ.
Leo’s address at the “Roots of Europe” conference may offer a first indication of how he intends to navigate between these two realities in an increasingly tense European context.
Killing the sick is ‘false compassion,’ pope says in Lourdes
LOURDES, France — Killing the sick is neither compassionate nor normal, and being legal does not make it moral, Pope Leo XIV said Sunday, in a clear reference to France’s recent legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
“I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity,” the pope said during a meeting with about 5,000 sick people and caregivers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sept. 27.
“It is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” the pontiff added to loud applause. “It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.”
The popeʼs remarks on end-of-life concerns were met with applause and shouts of “Bravo.”
France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.
Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It differs from assisted dying, in which the patient takes life-ending drugs himself, under a physician’s guidance. Both practices are prohibited by Catholic teaching.
Leo met Sept. 27 with staff and sick guests of the Accueil Notre-Dame (Notre Dame Home), a residential accommodation classified as a healthcare facility, which hosts sick, disabled, and frail pilgrims to Lourdes.
The Catholic shrine is one of the most visited in the world, drawing more than 3 million people every year, many in search of miraculous physical healing.
The 136-acre property includes the Grotto of Massabielle, where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous saw 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary starting on Feb. 11, 1858. Today, pilgrims to the sanctuary bathe themselves in the freshwater spring Mary revealed to Bernadette.
Visitors have reported 7,000 healings since the apparitions; after lengthy investigations, the Church has declared that 72 of the recoveries were miraculous, meaning unexplainable by science.
“Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” Pope Leo said.
He encouraged healthcare workers to be “passionate servants of life” and cited his speech to the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation in June, in which he said, "no one ever has the right, “on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person! Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!”
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Earlier in the morning, the pope addressed the French bishops’ conference, praising the bishops’ courage in opposing the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
“I encourage you to persevere, together with all people of good will who uphold the same values,” he told the bishops.
In his remarks to the sick and caregivers, Leo called for structures for palliative care and urged the healthcare field to accompany the sick with the same tenderness they receive in Lourdes.
“Doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, pastoral teams serving the sick, and so many others live out their vocation in the service of the dignity of the human person, so that the world may have life,” he said.
“Dear brothers and sisters who are sick,” he concluded, “I want to tell you that you are not a burden. You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church. I carry in my prayers the trials you are going through.”
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Immediately after the meeting, the pope walked next door to greet the Discalced Carmelite nuns whose monastery faces the grotto of the apparitions from across the river Gave de Pau. The contemplative monastery was founded in 1876, just 18 years after Mary appeared to St. Bernadette.
Rosary procession
The pope concluded his visit to Lourdes with a torchlight rosary procession from the Grotto of Massabielle to the forecourt of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.
“We are gathered this evening to respond to the request that Our Lady addressed to the priests through St. Bernadette: ‘People should come here in procession,’” Leo said at the procession’s end.
“How moving it is to see the faithful from one generation to the next respond with love and trust to the tender invitation of the Virgin Mary. … I give thanks to the Lord that I, too, may respond this evening to the call of our Mother, becoming a pilgrim among pilgrims.”
Pope Leo said those who are sick “are privileged witnesses to this transfiguration of our lives through faith and love of God and neighbor.”
“It is indeed necessary to come here and take part in this procession with you, dear brothers and sisters who are ill, in order to experience this full reality,” he added. “As Pope Pius XII wrote: ‘No one has ever seen such a procession of suffering in one spot on earth, never such radiance of peace, serenity, and joy.’”
The pontiff called it a miracle to find “serenity and joy amidst suffering.”
“God grants us the grace to perceive the life-giving presence of the risen Christ among us. He enables us to look beyond our earthly horizon towards a more distant future, a future of immeasurable happiness in God,” he said.
Federica Postiglione has volunteered for 30 years with UNITALSI, an Italian organization that arranges pilgrimages for sick and disabled people. Leo’s visit to Lourdes coincided with the organization’s national pilgrimage, which brought about 4,000 people to the shrine this year.
“The pilgrimage in itself is already truly a gift and a grace,” Postiglione, who is from Naples, told EWTN News. “Coming to Lourdes … with the pope, was very, very beautiful.”
She said it was wonderful to experience the anticipation that the pilgrims in their group felt as they waited to see Pope Leo in his encounter with the sick and their caregivers.
Her favorite moment was seeing how, “despite the fences, he wanted to meet and greet some of the sick people.”
Virginia Wildemann, a pilgrim from Long Island, N.Y. participating in the rosary procession, said she had experienced illness and “wanted to come here and I wanted to bathe myself in the holy water, and it’s a shame because we can’t do that because the pope is here, and being that he’s here, everything is closed — the grotto, the baths — but I was able to get some holy water, which is fantastic.”
Wildemann said she absorbed the pope’s message that “we have to stay together, pray together, love one another, be kind to one another, and that’s what Jesus wants of us — to love your neighbors as you love yourself.”
Ron Denissen, a pilgrim from Delaware, said when his parish group booked the trip to Lourdes, he didn’t know the pope would be visiting the Marian pilgrimage site at the same time. Denissen said he stood along the road near his hotel as the pope passed in a motorcade.
“And as he was coming by, I yelled, ‘Go Bears!’ because he’s a Chicago fan,” referring to the Chicago Bears football team, Denissen said. “And he was looking away, but then he looked over at me and waved, and I got a picture of him up close, personal, looking at me and waving. So that was pretty special.”
This story was updated at 5:45 p.m. ET on Sept. 27, 2026, to include reporting on the torchlight rosary procession.