Pope Leo XIV arrives in Lourdes for the second leg of his France visit, after leaving Paris. He prays at the Grotto of Massabielle/Massabielle, a key Catholic pilgrimage site, and begins his Lourdes itinerary with a devotional prayer at the Grotto of the Apparitions, linked to the 1858 visions of Bernadette Soubirous.
The outlets place Lourdes within the wider context of the pope’s trip and its public and private elements. France 24 reports that he is scheduled to celebrate an open-air Mass and later meet privately with seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse. It also references findings from a French inquiry that estimates around 330,000 people were abused as minors by members of the Church over seven decades. Euronews focuses more on the pilgrimage setting and the shrine’s religious significance, including its status as one of Catholicism’s most visited sites.
Sources agree on the timing of the Lourdes visit and the pope’s prayer at the grotto, while emphasizing different aspects of the overall program and background context.
