With cheers echoing from Paris to Lourdes, Pope Leo brought his first official trip to France to a pointed political finish, preparing to address the future of Europe and the continent’s drive toward unity.
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics wraps up his four-day trip with a visit to Metz, a northeastern city that repeatedly changed hands between France and Germany in past conflicts.
Metz is closely linked to Robert Schuman, widely regarded as one of the European Union’s founding fathers, who is buried just outside the city.
The first US pontiff was expected to speak on the “roots of Europe” and the importance of unity on a continent where nationalist movements are gaining strength and Russia’s war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year, shows no sign of abating.
French President Emmanuel Macron was also to speak and a handful of European heads of state and government were expected to be in attendance.
The first US pontiff was expected to speak on the ‘roots of Europe’
Pope Leo’s message will come seven months before French voters choose a successor to Mr Macron, with the eurosceptic, anti-immigration far-right seeking power.
He has repeatedly framed Europe as a necessary counterweight to the world’s major powers, and has previously urged the EU to push past internal tensions and rebuild unity in pursuit of peace in Ukraine and beyond.
In Metz, home to around 120,000 people, the pope’s visit has sparked excitement, with hotels fully booked and restaurants reporting a surge in reservations.
The stop in Metz carries deep symbolic weight, said Philippe Ballot, archbishop of Metz, who noted the city has been forged by “three wars, including two world wars”.
‘Enormous preparations’
The pope will ride his open-top popemobile through Metz and celebrate mass in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a jewel of Gothic architecture.
“The scale of the preparations is enormous,” said Anne Padoreck, a local resident.
Authorities carried out a meticulous security operation on the eve of the visit, including deminers who abseiled down the cathedral’s facade.
Nearly two decades after the last official papal trip to France, the visit has reignited enthusiasm and religious fervour in the officially secular nation that still bears deep Catholic roots.
According to the Vatican, more than 1.3 million people turned out to see the pope between Friday and Sunday in Paris and Lourdes.
Pope Leo takes part in a torchlight procession in on the third day of his visit to France.
The centrepiece of the journey came in Paris, where Pope Leo travelled by popemobile along the Champs-Elysees before celebrating mass for around 800,000 people, turning tightly secured central streets into an open-air place of worship.
Along the way, he has been seen smiling and approachable, frequently leaning toward the crowd to offer blessings—especially to children and to people with disabilities.
While much of the programme focused on encounters with the faithful, the pontiff also used the trip to underline the priorities of his pontificate: calling for peace and coexistence, and warning against a future that could lose its humanity in “a paradise of machines” as AI advances.
Read more: Irish teenager takes cousin to Lourdes to meet Pope Leo
During a meeting at the Elysee Palace, he pressed France to remain a standard-bearer for peace, and in an encounter with migrants on Saturday said it was possible to “live together in dignity and peace.”
In Lourdes in the southwest yesterday, the pope met victims of clerical sex abuse and urged French bishops to confront the “scourge”.
He also said that assisted dying was not “normal”, after France’s parliament legalised the practice this year for certain patients.
