Pope Leo XIV landed at Paris-Orly airport on the morning of Friday, 25 September, welcomed by President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady, Brigitte Macron, as church bells rang across the country. It is the first official papal visit to France in 18 years — the last pope to come to Paris was Benedict XVI, in September 2008.
The trip runs until Monday the 28th and is the fifth apostolic journey of this pontificate. The Vatican gave it the motto "That the world may have life", which, according to Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, points both to the defence of human life "from conception to natural death" and to the spiritual vitality of the French Church.
Seven survivors, about an hour
The most delicate item on the agenda falls in Lourdes, on Saturday: a meeting of roughly an hour with seven survivors of sexual abuse committed inside the Church, held as a personal conversation. The Conférence des Évêques de France (French Bishops' Conference) and the conference of religious orders selected the participants after approaching some 40 people and organisations; the group includes men and women abused in schools and parishes. Those not chosen for the in-person meeting were invited to submit written testimony through the French Church's child protection service.
The backdrop is the report of the Commission Indépendante sur les Abus Sexuels dans l'Église (Ciase, the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Church), published in 2021 and known by the name of its chairman, Jean-Marc Sauvé. It estimated that 216,000 minors were abused by clergy in France since 1950, and around 330,000 once cases attributed to lay people working for Church institutions are included.
UNESCO, the Stade de France and Metz
In Paris, Leo XIV is received at the Élysée Palace and speaks at the headquarters of UNESCO, where he is expected to address artificial intelligence — a theme that has marked the early months of his pontificate. Also scheduled: a prayer with religious leaders at Notre-Dame, a meeting with migrants at the Maison Bakhita, a Mass at the Place de la Concorde with 42 giant screens along the Champs-Élysées, and a 2.5-kilometre popemobile route through the centre of the capital.
On Saturday evening, a vigil at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, is expected to draw 80,000 young people aged 17 to 35. In Lourdes, the programme takes in the Grotto of the Apparitions, the candlelit procession and a meeting with the sick. The journey ends in Metz on Monday, with an interfaith encounter and a speech on Europe's roots and unity at the conference centre that bears Robert Schuman's name.
The bill
The French Church puts the cost of the visit at €27 million — above the first estimates — of which €5.5 million has already been raised by the Bishops' Conference. Security and public services are covered by the French state: 15,000 police and gendarmes have been mobilised, alongside 17,000 volunteers and 2,500 accredited journalists. Organisers expect around 1 million people across the four days, including up to 150,000 along the popemobile route and more than 500,000 near the Arc de Triomphe.
Putting a trip of this size together in four months says something about the urgency. The Church in France is losing worshippers and facing a crisis of confidence that the Ciase report laid bare. The hour in Lourdes will be read, at home and abroad, as the measure of what this pontificate intends to do about it.
With information from Vatican News, Euronews, Correio Braziliense and Sete Margens.
