Paris is preparing for a rare Vatican moment: Pope Leo XIV is due to arrive in France today, launching the Holy See’s first state visit to the European nation in 18 years.
To mark the landing of the first American pontiff — whose paternal grandmother was born in France — church bells across the country are set to ring for seven minutes as his plane touches down outside the capital for a four-day trip.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will meet the 71-year-old on the tarmac, beginning the first official visit by a Vatican head of state since Pope Benedict XVI travelled to France in September 2008.
With elections to succeed Mr Macron seven months away, the pope is expected to address a broad slate of issues, from the risks posed by artificial intelligence and the pressures of the migration crisis to clerical sexual abuse and the prospects for peace in Europe.
After visiting the presidential palace, the Catholic Church leader will head to UNESCO headquarters for an afternoon speech anticipated to centre on the need to regulate AI.
“Human dignity, peace, education and responsibility in the face of new technologies will likely occupy an important place in his address,” said Monsignor Roberto Campisi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN’s culture agency.
Organisers expect about a million people to attend events in Paris over the first two days of the visit.
Later today, Pope Leo is scheduled to greet crowds during a 2.5km popemobile journey to Notre-Dame cathedral in central Paris, making him the first pope to review the renovation work following the 2019 fire.
His predecessor, Pope Francis — who travelled to France three times without making an official visit — was absent from the reopening of the Gothic landmark in late 2024, when then president-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests.
The day’s programme also includes a stadium gathering in Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb, where the pope will take part in a ceremony of prayer and hymns expected to draw 80,000 people aged 17 to 35.
For the occasion, a relic thought to be the tunic Jesus wore during the Passion will be brought from the nearby Saint-Denis Cathedral to the stadium.
The visit comes in a nation where Catholic practice has fallen sharply: a survey last year found only about 5% of France’s 69 million residents regularly attend Catholic church, in a deeply secular country that has enshrined the right to abortion in the constitution and approved assisted dying for some patients.
Yet amid a decline in infant christenings, adult baptisms have been rising, with thousands choosing to embrace the faith.
Pope Leo will celebrate Mass tomorrow at the Place de la Concorde and the adjoining Champs-Élysées before travelling on to Lourdes in southwestern France.
In Lourdes, he is due on Sunday to meet privately with seven victims of clerical sex abuse.
A 2021 inquiry concluded that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France over 70 years.
More recently, additional allegations have surfaced involving charity icon Abbe Pierre and staff at a Catholic boarding school near Lourdes.
On Monday, for the final stage of the trip, Pope Leo is expected to deliver a speech on peace in Europe in Metz, in northeastern France near the German border.
According to a French presidential source, EU heads of state and government have been invited to attend.
