At 18:00, behind closed doors at the bishop's palace in Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV privately meets seven victims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Church, according to the French Bishops' Conference. They are not representatives of a collective but individuals met one by one; five of them have made their identities public, including Bertrand Virieux, a victim of former priest Bernard Preynat, convicted in 2020. The group met on September 14 to prepare for the encounter and issued a joint statement noting that "engaging in dialogue does not mean giving our endorsement." Some French victim-support associations have criticized the choice of a purely individual format, without collective representation. In his morning address to the French bishops, the Pope called abuse "a painful scourge" and said that "recognizing our errors is indispensable" for the Church's conversion. In the days before the visit, the Sanctuary also covered the mosaics created by Father Marko Rupnik, who is accused of sexual abuse, on the facade of the Basilica of the Rosary.