Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air Mass at Paris’s Place de la Concorde on Saturday, the centerpiece of his France visit; the Vatican put attendance at 800,000, citing French authorities. In his homily, he urged people to trust in God and pass on their faith.
Among those at the Mass were Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Marine Le Pen, whom the report describes as a far-right politician. President Emmanuel Macron did not attend; the report attributed his absence to France’s strict separation of Church and state. Macron had received Leo on Friday, when the pope praised France as the country of human rights but criticized a new law permitting assisted suicide and the constitutional protection of the right to abortion.
Earlier Saturday, Leo met adults recently baptized and urged them to remain steadfast in their faith and share it. The French Bishops’ Conference said 13,000 adults were baptized in France this year, three times as many as a decade ago, while infant baptisms have fallen by more than half since 2000. Leo traveled to Lourdes later Saturday and is due in Metz on Monday to give a speech on Europe.
