Pope Leo France visit: 4 remarkable days, a hopeful plea
Pope Leo XIV wrapped up a four-day, three-city trip to France on Monday, Sept. 28, closing the first state visit by a pope to the country in 18 years. The Pope Leo France visit, which began Friday, Sept. 25, took him to Paris, the shrine town of Lourdes and the northeastern city of Metz as he sought to rebuild the Catholic Church’s credibility after abuse scandals and pressed his message on artificial intelligence and human dignity, The Associated Press and Reuters reported.
The centerpiece of the Pope Leo France trip was an outdoor Mass in Paris on Saturday, Sept. 26, that drew an estimated 800,000 people, according to Reuters. France, often called “the eldest daughter of the Roman Catholic Church,” is also fiercely secular, and faith affiliation has dropped sharply among young people even as some signs of renewed interest have appeared.
A pope arriving as a different kind of leader
Leo, the first American pope, was elected in May 2025. Rome-based Vatican analyst Marco Politi told NPR that cardinals from the Global South chose Leo to carry on Pope Francis’ reforms. Leo has since become a quiet but firm voice on world affairs. His criticism of the Iran war earlier this year drew a rebuke from President Donald Trump, Reuters reported, and Le Figaro Vatican correspondent Jean-Marie Guenois told NPR that moment turned Leo into “a real international pope.”
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Leo at Paris’ Orly airport, and the two met at the Élysée Palace, where Leo spoke about AI, the nuclear arms race and the right to life, according to the AP. Leo also said the doctrine of nuclear deterrence was “mistaken.”
“Peace is not a balance of power; rather, it is built day by day through dialogue and justice,” he said, according to the AP. AI has been a theme of his papacy from the start. The AP noted that Leo devoted his first encyclical, “Magnificent Humanity,” to the subject, calling for strong regulation and urging developers to put the common good ahead of profit.
The AP noted that Macron is barred from seeking a third term in next May’s election and that his approval ratings are near record lows amid frustration over living costs, public debt and strained public services. Hosting the Pope Leo France trip was a capstone for his presidency.
Francis never made a full state visit to France during his 12-year pontificate and declined Macron’s invitation to the 2024 reopening of Notre Dame, the AP reported.
Leo, by contrast, led evening prayers in the restored cathedral on his first night in Paris, becoming the first pope to celebrate there since the 2019 fire that destroyed its roof and toppled its spire, according to the AP. Thousands of people lined his motorcade route that day despite unseasonable heat.
Why the Pope Leo France visit mattered for the church
The Pope Leo France visit came five years after a 2021 report on clergy abuse of minors shocked the country and damaged the church’s standing, Reuters reported.
The demographic picture is stark: Reuters cited a report from INSEE, France’s official statistics agency, showing that 25 percent of French adults ages 18 to 49 identify as Catholic, down from 43 percent a decade earlier.
There are small signs of renewal. The French Bishops’ Conference counted a record 21,000 adult baptisms last Easter, according to Reuters. Meeting newly baptized Catholics at the Catholic University of Paris on Saturday, Leo cautioned the French church against being “naively optimistic” about the rise. “We must recognise, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid the thorns,” he said.
Lourdes, in southwestern France, draws millions of pilgrims a year to the grotto where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. During the Lourdes leg of the Pope Leo France visit on Sunday, Sept. 27, Leo met with seven people abused by French clergy. The Vatican said he thanked them for their testimony and recommitted to making sure what they suffered does not happen to others, Reuters reported.
The secular-sacred contradiction Leo navigated
A 1905 law enshrines the separation of church and state in France. Yet Saturday’s Mass, the largest event of the Pope Leo France visit, filled the Champs-Élysées from the Place de la Concorde, a symbol of the secular French Revolution, to the Arc de Triomphe, Reuters reported.
Attendees included Brigitte Macron, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and far-right leader Marine Le Pen. The scene captured the paradox of a country that is legally secular but still culturally tied to Catholicism.
Politi told NPR that Leo, unlike Francis, who described Europe as having grown old, would bring a more hopeful message and that as an American he believes strongly in transatlantic ties and Europe’s role in restoring world order. At UNESCO’s Paris headquarters on Friday, the opening day of the Pope Leo France trip, Leo warned that the United Nations and other multilateral bodies are in crisis, Reuters reported. In his Élysée speech, he cautioned against losing humanity amid “a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives,” according to the AP.
Final stop: Metz and a plea for Europe
Leo ended the Pope Leo France visit in Metz, near the German border, with a speech on European unity. He urged Europe to draw on its Christian roots and its tradition of dialogue to counter the “desire for domination” driving today’s wars, PBS NewsHour reported, citing the AP. Macron attended, but despite invitations to all EU heads of state, only a handful of leaders from smaller states, including Monaco, Andorra and Luxembourg, joined him.
Whether the Pope Leo France visit helps the church rebuild trust in France will take time to measure. For more on Leo’s views on technology, read our look at Pope Leo XIV’s stance on AI, and see the Vatican screening of Martin Scorsese’s Pope Francis documentary.
Reporting from Reuters, The Associated Press, NPR and PBS NewsHour contributed to this story.