Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged French bishops to keep up the battle against the "scourge" of clerical sex abuse, after repeated accusations against the Church in recent years.
"You have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy or within an ecclesial context," he told them during a private meeting in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, according to a copy of his speech released to the press.
"It is important to persevere along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance."
A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France over 70 years.
Pope Leo is to meet seven victims privately in Lourdes later on Sunday, after promising to further efforts to reform the Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.
They include a now 80-year-old former pupil of the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a nearby boarding school at the centre of widespread accusations of physical and sexual abuse over several decades.