Leo XIV visits France: Pope blesses babies on way to giant Paris Mass

Pope Leo XIV celebrated one of the largest open-air Masses in recent French history on Saturday, drawing between roughly 700,000 and 800,000 people to Paris's Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées, according to Vatican estimates. The turnout significantly exceeded the roughly 600,000 people who had originally registered to attend. The event marks the first official state visit by a pope to France in 18 years and forms part of a four-day trip that also took the 71-year-old American pontiff to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes.

The Pope traveled along a mile-long stretch of the Champs-Élysées in his popemobile, greeted by cheering crowds waving French and Vatican flags. According to multiple reports, he blessed babies held up to him by parents and caregivers along the route and repeatedly engaged directly with people lining the boulevard. International media described the scenes as marked by a particularly emotional and personal atmosphere.

The centerpiece of the visit was the Mass held at Place de la Concorde, a historic square in the heart of Paris. In his homily, the Pope addressed young people directly, describing them as "the Church of today." The previous evening, he had already taken part in a youth vigil at the Stade de France, in what several outlets described as a deliberate effort to connect with younger Catholics during the trip.

Reports differed somewhat on the exact size of the crowd. Al Jazeera and France24 cited figures of around 800,000 attendees, while the Vatican, along with the Guardian, CBS News and other outlets, put the number closer to 700,000. One France24 video report at one point mentioned a figure of 600,000. These discrepancies likely reflect differences in counting methods and the timing of each report. Regardless of the precise figure, all accounts agreed that the gathering was extraordinarily large and exceeded organizers' expectations.

The event had a substantial impact on daily life in Paris. Several news agencies reported that large parts of the city center were closed off for the papal visit, and traffic around the Champs-Élysées came to a standstill. ABC News and the Globe and Mail suggested that the massive turnout pointed to the Catholic Church's continuing social influence in France, despite a long-term decline in regular church attendance. France is officially a secular state but retains deep historical ties to Catholicism.

Following the Paris Mass, the Pope traveled the same day to Lourdes, one of the most significant Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. There he prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, the site traditionally associated with reported Marian apparitions in the 19th century. Coverage of this leg of the trip, including from France24 and Africa News, described it as an emotional moment in the pilgrimage. According to France24, an additional open-air Mass was scheduled in Lourdes the following day, along with a private meeting between the Pope and victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The four-day trip to France is being viewed as a significant event for the Catholic Church in Europe, given the long gap since the last official papal visit to the country. It remains unclear how lasting the public attention generated by the visit will prove to be, and what further issues — including the Church's handling of the clergy abuse scandal — will be addressed during the remainder of the trip. Coverage so far has focused primarily on the scale of the gatherings and their emotional impact on attendees, with deeper political or ecclesiastical analysis still largely absent from initial reporting.