Pope Leo XIV begins France state visit, first in 18 years
Pope Leo XIV arrived in France on Friday for a four-day state visit, the first official papal visit in 18 years, with AI regulation, youth outreach, and meetings on assisted dying and clerical abuse on the agenda.
Pope Leo XIV arrived in France on Friday for a four-day state visit — the first official papal visit to the country in 18 years — with artificial intelligence and young believers at the top of his agenda.
The first US pontiff, 71, whose paternal grandmother was born in France, landed outside Paris at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), where President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte greeted him on the tarmac and church bells rang for seven minutes across the nation.
Leo meets Macron at the Élysée on Friday morning before addressing French officials and civil society, then delivers an afternoon speech at UNESCO headquarters expected to focus on regulating artificial intelligence. A 2.5km popemobile ride to Notre-Dame makes him the first pope to inspect its renovations since the 2019 fire. He ends the day at a youth vigil at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
The visit — at the invitation of Macron, the French bishops and UNESCO’s director-general — comes amid sensitive debates: France enacted an assisted dying law in August, and Leo meets seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Lourdes on Sunday. A 2021 inquiry estimated about 330,000 people were abused as minors by clergy or associates over seven decades.
On Saturday he leads a giant Mass on the Place de la Concorde and adjoining Champs-Élysées, expected to draw 500,000. The trip closes Monday in Metz with a speech on peace in Europe, to which EU heads of state and government have been invited.
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