Pope Leo XIV is embarking on a four-day visit to France, where hundreds of thousands of Catholics are expected to attend religious celebrations in Paris and the sanctuary of Lourdes.
The highlight of the visit will be a Mass on Saturday at the Place de la Concorde, with an estimated 600,000 people expected to gather along the Champs-Élysées and towards the Arc de Triomphe.
French authorities have put security measures in place around the celebration, while President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to welcome the Pope on Friday and discuss international affairs and artificial intelligence with him.
The Pope will later travel through Paris in the Popemobile before visiting Notre-Dame Cathedral. He is also expected to meet 80,000 young people at the Stade de France on Friday evening.
On Sunday, Leo XIV will lead a Mass at Lourdes, where approximately 150,000 people have registered. The visit will include meetings with migrants and survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.
The Pope will conclude his trip in Metz on Monday, where he will pay tribute to Robert Schuman, a Catholic statesman regarded as a founding father of the European Union.
The visit comes as France, a country with deep historical ties to the Catholic Church, continues to experience declining religious participation. Regular church attendance has fallen significantly over recent decades, although adult baptisms have increased in recent years.
Church leaders say the growing interest in religious tradition reflects a search for spiritual meaning among sections of the French population and wider Europe.
