Close to one million people have gathered to welcome Pope Leo XIV to France, stretching the length of the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday afternoon.
It was the second day of Pope Leo XIV’s four-day apostolic journey to France.
On Friday, he had arrived in France and was welcomed at the Élysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron. He also visited UNESCO before celebrating Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and then leading a youth pray vigil at the Stade de France.
The vigil featured testimonies, songs and artistic performances, but among the highlights was an “army of saints”, representing the 1,700 saints and blessed of France, who processed into the stadium, moving the Holy Father to tears.
Pope Leo XIV spoke tenderly to the 80,000 young people gathered for the vigil, encouraging them to follow Christ without fear.
Asked a question by François, a scout leader from rural France, on how he could discern the direction of his life, the Holy Father told him to keep his heart open.
“Commit yourself to the service of peace, which helps us to grow,” the Holy Father replied.
“Commitment transforms “fears into hope, and complaints into responsible engagement’, while ‘our wounds then find consolation and redemption.”
In his closing remarks at the vigil, Pope Leo XIV invited the young people to grow close to God through virtue.
“Let us choose together the virtues we must develop in order to follow the Lord,” he said.
On Saturday morning, he visited the Maison Bakhita, a social integration centre in Paris, which offers support to migrants and refugees.
In the afternoon, he travelled along the Champs-Elysees in Paris to the Place de la Concorde, where he celebrated an open-air Mass. As he travelled down the boulevard, he passed frequently to bless babies, children and people with disabilities, as the hundreds of thousands gathered chanted “Leo, Leo” and “Long live the Pope”.
In his homily during the Mass at the Place de la Concorde, Pope Leo XIV urged people to not seek happiness in worldly things, but to look toward the Divine.
“Brothers and sisters, we must acknowledge that nothing in this world can ever fully satisfy us. When we think that our work is finished at last and our efforts have been rewarded, that inner emptiness often returns, deeper than before. And so, in an attempt to fill it, we may seek new pleasures, want to possess more and more things, or do everything we can to distract ourselves in order to numb that inner restlessness,” he said.
“Today’s Liturgy of the Word invites us to look into our hearts and ask, what is my deepest thirst? What am I really seeking in life? We all long for happiness, love and fulfilment. But from what source do we seek to quench our thirst? Are we content with material goods, immediate satisfactions, the countless little idols that promise us everything but leave our hearts empty? We have been baptized and received the living water of which the Gospel speaks, but have we truly encountered Christ personally? In essence, the human person is a being of desire, and only God can fill the emptiness within us.”
On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV visited Lourdes and celebrated Sunday morning Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes before some 150,000 people.
In his homily there, he continued the theme he had from the previous day, urging people to leave behind the pleasures of this world, to embrace God’s goodness.
He recalled Mary’s words to Saint Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next.”
“Today, not tomorrow, that we must repent,” he said, explaining that God desires people to “open our eyes and return to him.”
In the evening, he led a candlelit procession through the heart of the Marian shrine.
“How moving it is to see the faithful people, from one generation to the next, responding with love and trust to the Virgin Mary’s tender invitation,” he said. “How consoling it is to hear Christians sing hymns filled with fervour and faith, and walk, a light in their hands, towards their Mother in Heaven, the Mother Jesus gave us on the Cross.”
Monday will be his final day in France. He will travel to Metz for Mass at Saint-Étienne Cathedral, followed by a farewell ceremony at the airport before returning to Rome.
