Pope Leo XIV begins historic 4-day visit to France

Pope Leo XIV began his visit to France on Friday for his fifth Apostolic Journey as Pontiff. The four-day trip marks the first formal papal visit to the country once called “the eldest daughter of the Church” since Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in September 2008.

French bishops announced the visit’s theme as “That the world may have life,” and it comes as the officially secular nation is seeing an influx of new baptisms. So far this year, according to the Conference of Bishops of France, more than 21,000 adults have joined the Church, an increase driven by 18 to 25-year-olds.

“Pope Leo’s visit to France has sparked a real tidal wave” of interest, retired French Bishop Marc Stenger told Reuters. “French Catholics are… saying ​loudly that they need the Church to find their way in these uncertain moments in world history.”

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The rise comes after a 2021 report found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades, and said the Church had shown “deep, total and even cruel indifference” ​to victims. Stenger, who led the Diocese of Troyes from 1999 to 2020, told Reuters the scandals “have deeply wounded the Church and damaged its credibility.”

In what is described as an unusual move, the Vatican press office announced Pope Leo will meet privately in Lourdes with seven of those victims as part of a message of healing and vulnerability.

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The Vatican calls the trip, “a journey that unites faith and public engagement, memory and the future, with listening and bridge-building at its heart.” After being greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron and a courtesy visit to Élysée Palace on Friday, Pope Leo is scheduled to make 15 speeches during his visit. He is expected to speak on several spiritual and societal themes, including the need to protect immigrants, the sick and unborn, and defend human dignity in the era of AI, and address themes of peace, culture, and unity.

French bishops have expressed surprise at the level of interest in the visit. The Associated Press reports organizers for Pope Leo’s Saturday Mass at Paris’ Place de la Concorde, expecting up to 1 million people, have lengthened the security perimeter, extending the site beyond the 1.2-mile length of the Champs-Élysées, where Pope Leo will parade in the Popemobile.

Among his more noteworthy stops, Pope Leo will worship and speak on Sunday at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of Christianity’s most-visited pilgrimage destinations, especially popular with the sick. It is where an ailing Pope John Paul II, on his final foreign trip in 2004, delivered a forceful condemnation of abortion and euthanasia.

Pope Leo’s visit, however, comes after France’s recent national debate and subsequent passage of legislation allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication. That followed 2024 legislation enshrining abortion as a constitutional right.

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On Friday, Pope Leo will speak at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, headquarters in Paris. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni says Leo will likely reiterate his call for an AI slowdown and speak “with regard to the meaning of existence, to what makes human beings human and what does not.”

The speech comes after the Pope’s May manifesto in which Leo warned of the dangers of AI and urged international regulation of the industry. His position again puts him at odds with President Trump, who has encouraged AI innovation so the U.S. can compete with and surpass China.

Following his UNESCO visit, Pope Leo holds a prayer service at the newly-restored Cathedral of Notre-Dame, marking the first papal visit since a 2019 fire nearly destroyed one of France’s national landmarks.

He concludes his trip on Monday with a symbolic full-day visit to the border city of Metz, the birthplace of former French Prime Minister Robert Schuman, considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union. It is a backdrop the Vatican says the Pope will use to “champion friendship among European peoples.”

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French Ambassador to the Vatican Charles Personnaz told Reuters that Macron has invited leaders from all 27 EU members to attend the speech and meet with the Pontiff. Other media reports say Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may also attend.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.