The seven victims endured abuse in parishes, boarding schools, congregations, or ecclesial movements.

Their different stories and life journeys first intersected on 14 September, when they met to get to know one another and discuss the experiences, expectations, and requests they would share with the Pope.

The two-hour meeting took place at the bishop’s residence, a short walk from the Marian Shine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Among those present was Bishop Gérard Le Stang of Amiens, president of the Council for the Prevention of and Fight against Paedophilia within the French Bishops’ Conference.

Ensuring this evil is not repeated

The Holy See Press Office released several details of the encounter.

“The Pope met each of them individually and in private, listening to their stories, to the pain and suffering they had endured—sometimes, sadly, with the complicity or silence of those who could have helped them—and to their proposals to ensure that this does not happen again. He spent a few moments in prayer with some of them,” read a statement released on Sunday evening.

At the end, the Press Office reported, “the Pope gathered with everyone in a room of the bishop’s residence and addressed a few words to them, thanking them for their painful testimony and reaffirming his commitment to ensuring that the evil they had experienced would not happen to others.”

Pope Leo then expressed his closeness to the victims and, through them, “to those who have suffered and still suffer from the wounds of the abuse they endured.”

Finally, “expressing his hope that they could work together so that the community of the faithful might increasingly become a place where men and women of every age can find comfort and healing, the Pope asked those present to pray for him and imparted his blessing upon them.”

Who are the victims who met the Pope?

The identities of five of the seven victims attending the meeting are known: Jean-Marie Delbos, now 80, one of the key witnesses in the serious abuse case involving Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school; Jérôme Guillement, assaulted as a teenager by a priest in his parish and now a coordinator in the Qualité de la relation éducative mission; and Véronique Garnier of the Foi and Résilience collective, author of two books in which, after a very long period of silence and personal rebuilding, she recounts her experience of severe and repeated abuse by the parish priest of her community in Nancy.

Also present were Olivier Mardi, an activist and co-founder of Voix Libérées de Touraine, who, together with his brother Frédéric, suffered abuse by Father Bernard Tartu while participating in the Petits Chanteurs de Touraine choir; and Bertrand Virieux, a cardiologist and founder of the now defunct Lyon association La Parole Libérée. As a boy, he was abused by Father Bernard Preynat, the former priest who died in 2024 and was convicted of abusing young Scouts between 1971 and 1991.

The other two participants chose to remain anonymous, including one person abused by Abbé Pierre, a prominent figure in the French Church.

A private encounter

The seven people who conveyed to the Pope the gravity of the scourge of abuse in the Church were “selected” by the French Bishops’ Conference and the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France, following contact with around 40 groups and individuals.

All had put forward ideas and proposals for the meeting, and its organizers sought to ensure the fairest possible representation.

The small number of participants—which drew protests from some groups—was a deliberate choice intended to allow a substantive exchange, as Pope Leo XIV himself had requested.

The group nevertheless gave the Pope letters from some of the groups or individuals contacted by the Bishops’ Conference’s Child Protection Service.

Utmost vigilance

Earlier on Sunday morning, Pope Leo referred to the “painful scourge of abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy or within the Church” in his address to the Bishops, whom he met before Mass in Lourdes.

The Pope called on the Bishops to exercise “the utmost vigilance”, while recalling the “utmost determination” with which the Bishops’ Conference had “adopted courageous measures to respond to them (the victims, ed.), listening, seeking truth, justice, forgiveness, reparation and a firm commitment to a culture of prevention and protection against such crimes.”

This was a reference to the process of transparency, reforms and compensation initiated by the French Bishops and guided primarily by the findings of the 2021 CIASE Report.

The report was the work of the independent commission established in 2018 by the Bishops’ Conference itself, and reported that more than 210,000 minors had been victims of abuse by almost 3,000 priests and religious between 1950 and 2020.

The Bishops have raised the issue of abuse at all their recent plenary assemblies and have sought to ensure that victims who had previously denounced the Church’s indifference were heard.

“I know that some moments have been very difficult for your Conference,” the Pope said in Sunday morning’s address, reiterating the need to “continue along the path already taken, maintaining the utmost vigilance.”

_{Source: Vatican News}

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The criteria which indicate that this standard is being met include…

TS1: Training

The Church body will:

• Ensure that all clergy and religious who require it, including those in formation, have access to and avail themselves of nationally agreed safeguarding training to support their contribution to the Church body’s safeguarding practice.
• Require all overseas personnel, and those that are new to ministry, to have received training in the safeguarding standards and to have a good understanding of their content, prior to being involved in active ministry.
• Ensure that all lay employees and volunteers receive safeguarding training appropriate to their role, including specialist training for those with specific leadership or safeguarding responsibilities.
• Promote continuous improvement through regular review of the range, quality and impact of training provided.
• Produce a training needs analysis to facilitate the provision of training.
• Avail themselves of locally provided safeguarding training from relevant organisations in the area.
• Keep records of those who avail themselves of training opportunities and proactively engage with those who do not attend.

TS2: Support

The leadership of the Church body will:

• Prioritise the provision of effective safeguarding training.
• Maintain active oversight of its training provision to address any failures to meet its training requirements which may impact negatively on its practice.

The following represents evidence that would indicate compliance with this standard:

• The existence of a safeguarding training plan for the Church body, which has been updated and revised.
• A comprehensive training needs analysis for safeguarding for the Church body.
• Notes within the minutes of management and leadership meetings for the Church body, that the training needs are being tracked and discussed.
• An induction programme for new leaders and other key roles within the Church body.

< Standard Six

Standard Eight >

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The criteria which indicate that this standard is being met include…

HRM1: Safer Recruitment

The Church body will:

• Ensure that all safer recruitment procedures have been completed and the results acted upon for all clergy, religious, lay and voluntary posts.
• Ensure that all visiting clergy and religious have received necessary vetting, including the receipt of a celebret and testimonial of suitability (when stipulated) prior to active ministry.
• Maintain up to date records of all postholders to ensure that all Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are completed in a timely way.
• Ensure prompt and robust risk-based responses to blemished DBS, keeping accurate records of actions taken in response.

HRM2: Human Resource Management and Support

The Church body’s leadership will:

• Agree, publish and implement a safeguarding complaints policy, making it available to all who may wish to make use of it.
• Agree, publish and implement a whistle blowing policy, making it readily available to all eligible to use it.
• Maintain active oversight of all safer recruitment, complaints and whistle blowing processes to ensure compliance with policy expectations and learning from practice.

The following represents evidence that indicates that this standard is being met:

• Leadership of the Church body is regularly informed of any delays in completing screening checks for new personnel in safeguarding roles.
• Appropriate checks are made on all overseas personnel.
• Records are monitored by leadership to ensure that they are up to date.
• Training is provided to those involved in the supervision and management of offenders or those who are subject to a safeguarding plan.

< Standard Five

Standard Seven >

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The criteria which indicate that this standard is being met include…

SMR1: Management

The Church body will:

• Have access to personnel that have been trained in providing management, monitoring and support of respondents.
• When required, ensure that preliminary investigations and canonical investigations into allegations, including through referral to the National Tribunal Service, take place in compliance with can. 1717 §§1- 3, other relevant provisions of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and any lawfully promulgated revisions, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (as amended in 2010), Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019, revised 2023), the DDF’s Vademecum (2022) and other applicable law and instruction from the Holy See.
• Access suitably accredited professionals to conduct risk assessments to inform the provision of safeguarding plans.
• Enable respondents to safely participate in the life of the Church through the use of regularly reviewed safeguarding plans.
• Maintain confidentiality whilst meeting disclosure requirements to statutory and canonical authorities.

SMR2: Support

The Church body will:

• Adhere to national policies and/or practice guidance that set out how a respondent is to be informed when an allegation has been made, and supported afterwards.
• Be mindful of the impact on the wellbeing of the respondent and appoint a support person with the responsibility for listening to and addressing the pastoral needs of the respondent.
• Access suitably accredited professionals to deliver professional mental health and other appropriate support when required.
• Ensure that the respondent has access to suitable legal representation when subject to statutory/canonical investigation.

The Church body may evidence that it is meeting this standard by:

• Appointing appropriately trained and experienced personnel.
• Demonstrating adherence to national policy through how they inform, support, manage, and monitor respondents.
• Facilitating leave from sacred ministry.
• Managing the return of the respondent to ministry when there is no case to answer or the allegation has been shown to be false.
• Conducting appropriate safeguarding risk assessments.
• Providing records detailing the steps taken to monitor respondents.

< Standard Four

Standard Six >

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The criteria which indicate that this standard is being met include…

LGC1: Leadership

The Church body will:

• Have a zero-tolerance approach to all abuse.
• Seek and support the engagement of those who report having been harmed in contacts with personnel of the Church body, listen and respond to them.
• Make publicly available statements of its safeguarding commitments that are displayed within any location (e.g. physical and online) that it operates.
• Ensure a culture of safeguarding, as everyone’s responsibility and integral to its mission and ministry, is championed by its leadership.

LGC2: Governance

The Church body’s leadership will:

• Establish and regularly update their governance arrangements to ensure that they facilitate the implementation of the safeguarding standards.
• Set out clearly the responsibilities of Bishops/Superiors, Parish Priests / Religious Life Group members and other leaders of ministries and services for safeguarding practice to enable effective adherence to the agreed standards.
• Establish a safeguarding committee made up of leaders of the Church body and professional experts to drive their Safeguarding Implementation Plan and oversee their safeguarding practices.
• Develop and publish a Safeguarding Implementation Plan and ensure that governance arrangements facilitate its delivery and review.
• Provide adequate resources, recruit, and support suitably trained and experienced safeguarding personnel to deliver resilient safeguarding services at every level including that of the parish and other ministries and services.

LGC3: Ministry and Culture

The Church body’s leadership will:

• Identify, prevent, and mitigate safeguarding risks in its structures, culture, and practice of ministry.
• Provide a safe environment in all its places of ministry.
• Promote the work of the safeguarding lead / team as a source of expertise and influence throughout the Church body.
• Actively promote the Caring Safely for Others pastoral standards produced by the Bishops’ Conference and / or the Integrity in Ministry standards produced by the Conference of Religious.
• Encourage and support a culture of transparency.
• Adhere to information sharing practices and record creation policies that have been agreed nationally.
• Promote constructive engagement with the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency and the Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding.

The following represents evidence that could be used to indicate compliance with this standard:

• Existence of a written safeguarding implementation plan for the Church body.
• Commitment to the Safeguarding Implementation Plan being regularly review and amended.
• Definition of the responsibilities of all involved in leadership in the Church body in contributing to effective safeguarding.
• The minutes of leadership meetings containing reference to safeguarding matters being discussed in line with the standards.
• Regular liaison with the CSSA and their advice being sought.

< The Standards

Standard Two >

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These should be used for situations where ministry involves volunteers and direct work with children and young people.

Read/download

The current available resources have been produced by the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA). The Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding (SCCS) is currently working to update these resources to take ownership of the documents and their ongoing maintenance. Until this time, these pages will link out to the relevant sections on the CSSA website.

Click for Safeguarding Forms on the CSSA website.

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Bishop Paul Mason, the Lead Bishop for Safeguarding for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, alongside Sister Una Coogan CJ, the Lead Religious for Safeguarding for the Conference of Religious, explain how vitally important this work is to protect all who come into contact with the Church:

“Safeguarding is of vital importance to the Catholic Church in England and Wales and lies at the heart of our mission. Abuse has no place in the Church or wider society, and we have a zero-tolerance approach to it.  

“The Church is committed to listening, with humility, to the voices of victims and survivors as their experiences will always inform our safeguarding work. We are open to any learning that will refine and improve our practices to protect all.

“We again offer an unreserved apology to those who have been hurt by abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales and reiterate the open invitation from the bishops to meet with and listen to victims and survivors.

“It is the policy of the Catholic Church in England and Wales to report all allegations of abuse to statutory authorities, regardless of whether the abuse occurred recently or in the past, or whether the accused person is living or deceased. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 999.

“The Church is committed to continual review and development, assisted by the independent auditing work of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, so that all our communities are places of safety and sanctuary for all.”

Bishop Paul Mason
Lead Bishop for Safeguarding
Bishop of the Forces 

Sister Una Coogan CJ
Lead Religious for Safeguarding
Conference of Religious

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Safeguarding in the Church is the commitment to create safe, respectful, and protective environments where all who have contact with the Church are safe from harm, and where all people are treated with dignity and care. 

It is more than just responding to concerns: safeguarding is a culture, a way of being Church that reflects the Gospel values of love, justice, and respect for every person.

To ‘care for the other as a person for whom God has made us responsible’ is at the heart of the Church’s responsibility to safeguard all the people she encounters in the exercise of her mission, particularly those who are most at risk of abuse or exploitation in any form.

Our Mission

The Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding (SCCS) exists to ensure a One Church, One Voice approach to safeguarding across the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The SCCS provides a strategic framework that strengthens safeguarding arrangements across the Catholic Church. Our mission is to ensure coherence, consistency, and accountability in safeguarding practice, guided by national standards and continuous learning.

Our Role

Our role is to:

• Provide one voice
• Review evidence
• Provide actionable feedback

Who We Serve

We are committed to serving:

• All Catholic dioceses
• Religious Life Groups
• Catholic organisations and networks
• Those who have experienced harm within the Church
• Safeguarding professionals
• Clergy and lay leaders

Council Members

How the SCCS works

The Council comprises experienced safeguarding leaders, senior Church representatives, lay experts, and individuals with specialist knowledge in statutory safeguarding, regulation, governance, and survivor engagement.

The Council:

• Advises on strategy
• Oversees national safeguarding priorities
• Ensures alignment across Church bodies through a One Church approach
• Reviews learning and system-wide risks

To deliver its remit, the Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding may connect with several advisory groups across the Church, including those who focus on:

• Standards and Compliance
• Training and Workforce Development
• Quality Assurance and Audit
• Survivor Engagement
• Risk and Governance

Do you have a question? Please use our Contact Us form.

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