Pope Leo Set for Largest Event of France Tour as Paris Crowds Swell
- On Saturday, September 26, 2026, Pope Leo XIV celebrated an outdoor Mass for an estimated 800,000 people along the Champs-Élysées in Paris, urging Catholics to find happiness in faith rather than material things.
- This visit aims to repair the Catholic Church's standing after abuse scandals caused nationwide shock in France, a secular nation where Catholic affiliation has declined to 25% among 18-to-49-year-olds from 43% a decade earlier.
- During a visit to the Catholic University of Paris, Leo urged the church not to be "naively optimistic" about recent baptism increases. High-profile attendees included Brigitte Macron, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, and billionaire Bernard Arnault.
- Friday remarks at UNESCO warned that multilateral groups face crisis, while Leo cautioned that artificial intelligence could create "a paradise of machines" taking control of Earth, drawing a rebuke from President Donald Trump over his Iran war comments.
- Continuing his four-day tour, Leo travels to Lourdes on Saturday evening to visit a Catholic shrine, where he will meet seven French victims of clergy abuse on Sunday to address the ongoing scandal.
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Pope Leo XIV transformed the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde into a huge open-air cathedral in central Paris on Saturday. According to estimates by French authorities and the Vatican, between 700,000 and 800,000 people attended the solemn mass – the biggest event of his four-day apostolic journey through France. The scene was extraordinary. It was the first […] The post Pope before a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Paris: God quenches …
Paris. Pope Leo XIV yesterday offered a mass in the Plaza de la Concordia to almost 800,000 people gathered along the entire Avenue of the Champs-Elysées in Paris, and called on Catholics to “find happiness in faith and not in material things”.
Leo XIV draws 800,000 to open-air Mass on Paris’ Place de la Concorde
PARIS — Pope Leo XIV celebrated a major open-air Mass with 800,000 participants in the center of Paris on Saturday as the highlight of his visit to France, with the attendance figure cited by the Vatican based on French authorities.
Pope Leo XIV Prays at Site of 1792 Massacre, Celebrates Mass for 800,000 in Paris
Pope Leo XIV prayed at a Paris memorial to priests killed in the 1792 Carmelite massacre and later celebrated an outdoor Mass for roughly 800,000 people at the Place de la Concorde, site of Louis XVI's execution during the French Revolution.
The barriers of control are still far away, or rather so far away. It will take more than forty-five minutes to cross the bridge of the Invalides and reach Zone B South, one of the fourteen zones set up between the Concord and Avenue de la Grande Armée to follow the Pontifical Mass. But the wait does not discourage anyone: on the contrary, it makes rise euphoria. Here, young people remember the Friday evening vigil with Leo XIV at the Stade de F…
Chippewa Herald
Hundreds of thousands cheer pope in Paris
PARIS — Crowds stretched the length of the Avenue des ChampsÉlysées in Paris on Saturday, as Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to find happiness in faith, not material things, at the biggest event of his visit to France
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