The Diocese of Metz has strongly denied a report that a priest convicted in 2011 of possessing child pornography is responsible for communications surrounding Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Lorraine city on Monday, September 28, 2026.
The allegations, published this week by the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, were rejected outright by the diocese in an official statement.
Conviction and Allegations
According to the weekly, Stéphane Jourdain, now a parish priest in Montigny-lès-Metz, was sentenced in April 2011 to three months’ suspended imprisonment for possessing child pornography, alongside some forty other defendants. Le Canard Enchaîné further alleged that he had been “recycled, in a prominent position, within the diocese to communicate on the pope’s visit” to the Lorraine city.
Diocese Issues Firm Denial
“The Diocese of Metz wishes to make clear that Father Stéphane Jourdain has never been the diocesan communications director, that he is not in charge of communications for the Holy Father’s upcoming trip to France, and that he is not a member of the steering committee organizing the day in Metz,” the religious institution stated.
“We further specify that he is not responsible for fundraising for this event,” the diocese added, without denying the priest’s conviction.
A Historic Papal Journey
Before arriving in Metz, the final stop of his historic journey through France, Pope Leo XIV will arrive in Paris on Friday, September 25 for a two-day visit with a packed schedule, including prayer at Notre-Dame, a walk through the heart of the capital, and an open-air mass at the Place de la Concorde.
He will then travel to Lourdes, one of the world’s most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites, where he is due to meet on Sunday with seven victims of sexual violence within the Church.
Meeting With Abuse Victims Draws Criticism
Five of the participants have disclosed their identities, and the list reads as a summary of the scandals that have shaken the Church in France, including victims of Abbé Pierre, Abbé Tartu (who led a children’s choir in Tours), Father Bernard Preynat (in Lyon), and a former student of Notre-Dame de Bétharram, an institution at the center of a physical and sexual abuse scandal.
However, the national body for the recognition and reparation of victims of sexual violence (Inirr) has criticized what it called a “missed appointment.”
“The one-on-one format, I understand it,” said the body’s president, Marie Derain de Vaucresson, during a press conference, “because to truly exchange, you need to be a small number.”
Nevertheless, she added, “one could have imagined words carried by a small number, but built with a much larger number,” for example during “a full day of exchange, with 250 or 300 people” in Lourdes. A large gathering between victims and bishops had indeed been organized there over two days in April 2025.
