Vatican City - Pope Leo XIV will meet survivors of clerical sexual abuse during an official visit to France in September, the Vatican said Friday as it released the itinerary for the trip.

The Holy See did not immediately provide further details about the private meeting, which comes as the pontiff promised to further efforts to reform the Catholic Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

"During his upcoming Apostolic Journey to France, Pope Leo XIV will meet privately with individuals who have been victims of abuse within the Church," the Vatican said.

"The victims themselves will be involved in preparing this meeting."

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A 2021 inquiry found that about 330,000 people in France had been abused as minors by clergy or lay members of the Church, over the span of 70 years.

In May, a group representing abuse victims from a Catholic school near the southwestern town of Lourdes requested an audience with the pope during his upcoming visit to present reform plans for the Church to tackle abuse better.

During a meeting in Spain with sexual abuse victims, Pope Leo promised that the Church would make "additional efforts" to change.

The pontiff's France visit comes at a time when the Church has had to grapple with various splits on social, political, ethical and theological issues, with Leo seeking to mediate with both the progressive and traditionalist factions within the Holy See.

Starting on September 25, the first pope from the US, elected in May 2025, will travel to Paris to meet President Emmanuel Macron and tour the headquarters of the United Nations' culture agency, UNESCO.

He will then celebrate Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral in the French capital before holding a vigil with young people at the Stade de France.

The next day, Leo will celebrate Mass at Place de la Concorde, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend.

He will then travel to Lourdes, a site of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide, where he will hold an open-air mass on Sunday, September 27, before presiding over another at the cathedral in the northeastern city of Metz on September 28.

It will be the first papal state visit to France since Benedict XVI's in September 2008.

Coming after Leo's trip to Spain, the visit demonstrates the pope's interest in engaging with historically Catholic but increasingly nonreligious European countries which were largely overlooked by his predecessor, Francis.