Pope Leo begins France visit as 600,000 await Paris Mass

Pope Leo XIV begins a four-day visit to France on Friday, with about 600,000 people expected at a Mass in central Paris and meetings planned with survivors of clerical sexual abuse, migrants and French leaders.

It is the first official papal state visit to France in 18 years, according to Al Jazeera. The trip comes as the Catholic Church confronts debate over an assisted dying law and the continuing fallout from abuse by clergy and others associated with the church.

President Emmanuel Macron will greet Leo at Orly airport before talks at the Élysée Palace on geopolitical issues and artificial intelligence. Al Jazeera reported that the pope will also address French officials and civil society and speak at UNESCO. Later Friday, he is due to travel through crowds to Notre-Dame Cathedral and join 80,000 young people at the Stade de France.

Police have sealed off a large area around the Champs-Élysées for Saturday afternoon’s Mass. An altar has been built on the Place de la Concorde, with worshippers expected to fill the avenue toward the Arc de Triomphe and beyond. Macron will not attend any of the pope’s Masses, the BBC reported. His wife, Brigitte, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu are expected at the Paris celebration, along with several candidates for next year’s presidential election.

The BBC reported tensions over the visit’s ceremonial arrangements. Élysée officials dismissed the reports, saying they had offered the pope a range of events customary for a visiting head of state but had not expected him to accept them. They said Leo declined Macron’s proposal to meet artisans who helped rebuild Notre-Dame because his schedule was too tight.

In Lourdes on Sunday, 150,000 people have signed up for a Mass. Leo is also expected to meet seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse there, Al Jazeera reported. An independent inquiry published in 2021 estimated that about 330,000 people had been abused as minors over seven decades by clergy or others associated with the French Catholic Church. Retired Bishop Marc Stenger told Reuters the scandals had “wounded the church deeply and damaged its credibility”.

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, head of the French bishops’ conference, said “the defence of the dignity of human life” would be central to Leo’s message. Al Jazeera reported that France enacted a law in August allowing assisted dying under specified conditions for adults with serious and incurable illnesses, despite strong Catholic opposition. Martin Dumont, a French religion researcher, told AFP he would be “very surprised” if Leo took a confrontational approach.

The pope will also visit a Paris centre supporting migrants. On Monday in Metz, he is due to focus on Europe’s role in peace and unity and pay tribute to Robert Schuman, a founding father of the European Union who is a candidate for beatification. Macron is also due to speak there.

The visit comes amid a long decline in Catholic observance in France. According to the BBC, fewer than half of French people identify as Catholic, and regular worship has fallen from 35% of the population in 1960 to less than 5% today. Yet adult baptisms more than doubled over five years, reaching 10,000 in 2025.