Pope Leo XIV drew 800,000 attendees to central Paris on Saturday, September 26, for the biggest public event of his four-day visit to France.

An open-air Mass was held at the Place de la Concorde after the pope travelled through the Champs-Élysées in the popemobile.

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New France

Leo was looking out over this enormous crowd in one of Europe’s most secular countries and directing his message specifically toward the young people standing among them: “You are today’s church.” | X (@MarioNawfal)
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Leo was looking out over this enormous crowd in one of Europe’s most secular countries and directing his message specifically toward the young people standing among them: “You are today’s church.” | X (@MarioNawfal)

The scale of the gathering is significant because France is one of Europe’s most secular societies.

The separation of church and state is enshrined in the country’s 1905 law, while Catholic affiliation has declined for decades.

France’s official statistics agency, INSEE, showed that 25% of French people aged 18 to 49 identified as Catholic, down from 43% a decade earlier.

At the same time, the French Bishops’ Conference has pointed to a rise in adult baptisms, including a reported record 21,000 last Easter.

Leo, speaking to newly baptised Catholics before the Mass, cautioned the Church against being “naively optimistic” about the increase.

A little flame

Europe’s relationship with Christianity is more complicated than the story being told about its disappearance | X (@MarioNawfal)
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Europe’s relationship with Christianity is more complicated than the story being told about its disappearance | X (@MarioNawfal)

France’s tension between a historic Catholic identity and a more secular present ran through the pope’s visit. At the Mass, Leo told Catholics not to keep their faith to themselves.

“Only God can fill the emptiness within us,” he said, presenting faith as an answer to what he described as the limits of material life.

He also called on believers to recognise and protect what he described as a small but growing “flame” of faith in France.

More than Mass

Pope Leo XIV pauses to pray at the site of the brutal massacre at the Carmes monastery during the French Revolution, which is marked by the Latin expression "Hic ceciderunt" (Here they fell) | X (@VaticanNews)
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Pope Leo XIV pauses to pray at the site of the brutal massacre at the Carmes monastery during the French Revolution, which is marked by the Latin expression “Hic ceciderunt” (Here they fell) | X (@VaticanNews)

The visit has also gone beyond religion. Earlier on Saturday, Leo visited Maison Bakhita, a Paris centre that supports migrants and refugees.

There, he spoke about welcome, dignity and social integration.

The Vatican said he thanked staff and volunteers for offering “welcome, a listening ear, formation, and friendship”. He also said, “No one is so poor as to have nothing to give; no one is so rich as to have nothing to receive.”

The visit came ahead of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on September 27.

Old wounds

Pope Leo XIV's Mass on Place de la Concorde | X (@vaticannews_fr)
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Pope Leo XIV’s Mass on Place de la Concorde | X (@vaticannews_fr)

The trip also carries a difficult institutional backdrop.

A landmark 2021 inquiry into sexual abuse within the French Catholic Church estimated that about 330,000 children had been abused by clergy and lay members connected to Church institutions over seven decades.

Leo is due to meet seven French survivors in Lourdes on Sunday.

The meeting is part of a wider effort to address the damage caused by the scandal, though survivors and advocacy groups continue to call for deeper accountability and systemic reform.

Faith, dignity and an unfinished reckoning

Leo’s France tour, his first official papal visit to the country in 18 years, therefore carries several strands at once.

A message of faith to a secular society, an emphasis on migrants and human dignity, and an attempt to engage with a Church still dealing with the consequences of abuse.

After Paris, the pope travelled to Lourdes, with the trip scheduled to continue to Metz before his return to the Vatican on Monday.

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