Pope Leo XIV arrived in France on Friday for the Vatican’s first state visit to the country in 18 years, with artificial intelligence, young Catholics and the future of Europe expected to feature prominently on his four-day agenda.
Gatekeepers News reports that church bells rang across the country as the 71-year-old pontiff, the first US-born pope and a man with French ancestry, landed outside Paris shortly before 10am local time.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were scheduled to welcome the pope on the tarmac, marking the first official visit by a Vatican leader to France since Pope Benedict XVI travelled there in September 2008.
About one million people were expected to attend events across Paris during the first two days of Leo’s visit.
The centrepiece of the trip will be a major mass on Saturday, led by the pope at Place de la Concorde and along the Champs-Elysées.
Leo is also scheduled to visit Lourdes, one of the world’s most important Catholic pilgrimage sites, and Metz near the German border, a city associated with Robert Schuman, one of the founding figures of what is now the European Union.
“The pope’s visit gives me a sense of peace in a troubled world,” said Andree Estienne, 76, who said she was looking forward to attending the mass on the Champs-Elysées.
“I don’t think I will experience anything of this scale again in my lifetime.”
With France seven months away from elections to replace Macron and the far right seeking greater political influence, Leo is expected to address issues including the risks posed by artificial intelligence, migration, clerical sexual abuse and peace in Europe.
The pope was scheduled to visit the presidential palace on Friday before delivering a speech at UNESCO headquarters, where he is expected to emphasise the need for regulation of artificial intelligence.
‘To be near him’
Later on Friday, Leo was expected to greet crowds during a 2.5-kilometre popemobile journey to Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris.
He will become the first pope to inspect the cathedral following its restoration after a devastating fire in 2019.
Pope Francis, who visited France three times, did not attend Notre Dame’s reopening in late 2024. The ceremony was attended by several high-profile figures, including then US president-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
Carmen Quintana, a 71-year-old Peruvian, said she planned to join the crowds.
“We’re very happy to be able to be near him,” she said of Leo, who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru and also holds Peruvian nationality.
The pope’s Paris programme will conclude with a mass, prayers and hymns with about 80,000 young Catholics aged 17 to 35 at a stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
A relic believed to be the tunic worn by Jesus during the Passion will be transported from nearby Saint-Denis Cathedral to the stadium for the event.
France remains a deeply secular country, with only about five percent of its 69 million residents attending Catholic services regularly, according to a survey conducted last year.
While infant baptisms have declined in recent years, adult baptisms have increased, with thousands of people choosing to join the Catholic faith.
Macron will not attend Saturday’s mass, although several potential presidential candidates, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist politician Edouard Philippe, have confirmed their attendance.
Pope to meet abuse victims in Lourdes
After Paris, Leo will travel to Lourdes in southwestern France, where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant girl in a grotto in 1858.
During his visit, scheduled for Sunday, the pope will meet seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse.
A 2021 investigation found that about 330,000 people had been abused as minors by clergy or lay members of the Catholic Church in France over a period spanning seven decades.
Further allegations have emerged in recent years involving French Catholic figures, including charity icon Abbé Pierre and staff at a Catholic boarding school near Lourdes.
Leo’s final stop will be Metz on Monday, where he is expected to deliver a speech focusing on peace in Europe as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues into its fifth year.
