Pope Leo XIV to make first papal state visit to France in 18 years

Pope Leo XIV will travel to France next week for a four-day visit beginning September 25, the first official papal state visit to the country in 18 years. More than one million people are expected to attend events, according to the French Bishops' Conference.

The trip opens in Paris, where Leo will meet President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace and address UNESCO. He will then travel by popemobile through central Paris, celebrate vespers at Notre Dame Cathedral and join young people for a prayer vigil at the Stade de France.

The following day, the pope is due to celebrate an open-air Mass at Place de la Concorde, with at least 500,000 people expected along the Champs-Élysées and near the Arc de Triomphe. He will also meet migrants and recently baptized Catholics.

The visit arrives at what Charles Mercier, director of history and sociology of Catholicism studies at a Paris science and humanities university, describes as a distinct "French Catholic moment". He points to a rise in baptisms among young adults and the faith's growing visibility on social media.

"Being Catholic has become almost trendy on social media," Mercier said, adding that the increase in young adult baptisms makes this a significant time for the visit.

Mercier compared the anticipation surrounding the pope's arrival to the recent return of singer Celine Dion after a decade away from performing. He noted that this is the first papal visit to Paris since Benedict XVI in 2008, as Pope Francis had travelled to Strasbourg, Marseille and Corsica — areas Mercier described as peripheries of France — rather than the capital.

For Macron, who is nearing the end of his mandate, appearing alongside Leo could carry political value. Mercier described a renewed attraction to the pope as a global moral authority, a tendency he called a revival of ultramontanism — the view within the Catholic Church that places supreme authority in the pope.

"For a President of the Republic as Macron, who is at the end of his mandate, it can be important to be aside the Pope and to capture a part of his popularity," Mercier said.

The church's sexual abuse crisis is expected to remain in view during the trip. In Lourdes, Leo is scheduled to meet seven survivors of clergy sexual abuse. A 2021 report estimated that 330,000 children in France had been abused over several decades.

Mercier said the abuse issue dominated the agenda in France two or three years ago, after the report assessing its scale, and that the bishops asked for pardon from victims. He added that the bishops now give the impression they want to turn the page and do not want media attention captured by the crisis.

"They give the impression they do not want the attention of the media captured by the sex abuse crisis, and they want to say that 'we have dealt with this crisis and now we are building the future'," he said.