Huge crowds greet Pope Leo XIV ahead of Paris Mass

Hundreds of thousands of people greeted Pope Leo XIV in central Paris on Saturday as he traveled along the Champs-Élysées ahead of an open-air Mass expected to draw more than half a million people.

Crowds chanted “Leo, Leo” as the pontiff waved from his popemobile beneath the Arc de Triomphe. He stopped several times to bless babies, the BBC reported. A special altar was built at the Place de la Concorde for the Mass.

The gathering is the centerpiece of a four-day visit in which Leo has addressed artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons and the dignity of human life. It is the first official state visit by a pope to France in 18 years, according to NPR.

President Emmanuel Macron, who met Leo for an hour on Friday, will not attend any of the pope’s Masses, largely to avoid breaching France’s strict separation of state and religion, the BBC reported. Macron’s wife, Brigitte, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will attend Saturday’s Mass.

Several figures expected to run in next year’s presidential election are also due to attend, according to the BBC. Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally party and conservative Bruno Retailleau were pictured at the Place de la Concorde before the service, while centrists Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal were expected. Former Prime Minister François Fillon was also seen there.

Earlier Saturday, Leo visited the Maison Bakhita center, which supports refugees and migrants. He praised it for inviting “us to see those who are invisible” and said it was “possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace,” the BBC reported. He also stressed “the fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love.”

At the Élysée Palace on Friday, Leo warned that humanity risked losing its way as artificial intelligence became more pervasive. “If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment and the capacity to acknowledge the moral good,” he said, according to NPR.

Speaking to Macron and other officials, he urged France to remember its “deep Christian roots” and described the right to life as the “indispensable foundation of every other human right,” NPR reported. He also rejected nuclear deterrence as “mistaken,” saying it fueled a new arms race. “Peace is not a balance of power; rather, it is built day by day through dialogue and justice,” he said.

Later Friday, Leo led evening prayers at Notre Dame, becoming the first pope to celebrate there since the 2019 fire that destroyed its roof and spire, according to NPR. He praised the artisans who restored the cathedral.

The visit continues Sunday at the sanctuary of Lourdes in the Pyrenees, where 150,000 people have signed up to attend Mass, the BBC reported. On Monday, Leo is due in Metz in northeastern France to pay tribute to Robert Schuman, a founding father of the European Union and a candidate for beatification.