Pope Leo was greeted by chants and a crowd stretching 2.2 km across central Paris on Saturday as an outdoor Mass drew an estimated 700,000 people, the biggest event of his weekend visit to France; more than 600,000 had registered.
Leo’s four-day, three-city visit is aimed at repairing the Church’s standing after abuse scandals caused nationwide shock. At a Paris meeting with newly baptized Catholics, he urged the French Church not to be “naively optimistic” about a rise in converts: the bishops’ conference cited a record 21,000 adult baptisms last Easter, while INSEE found 25% of 18-to-49-year-olds identified as Catholic, down from 43% a decade earlier.
Leo was due to travel to Lourdes later Saturday and meet seven French victims of clergy abuse on Sunday. On Friday, he warned at UNESCO that the UN and other multilateral groups were in crisis. He also urged French leaders to reconsider AI development, saying it could create a future where a “paradise of machines” takes control of Earth.
