Pope Leo XIV will celebrate a public Mass on September 26 at Place de la Concorde and the adjoining Champs-Élysées in Paris during his state visit to France, Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
The pope is scheduled to visit France from September 25 to 28, marking the first official state visit by a pontiff to the country in 18 years.
According to AFP, the Mass which will be held in the early afternoon, is expected to attract about 500,000 worshippers. A separate gathering with young people is also planned for September 25 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Ulrich said he wanted to welcome Pope Leo “at venues and symbolic places in Paris and France,” which demonstrate “the joy of an entire country and its capital in coming out to meet him.”
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After Paris, where he will meet President Emmanuel Macron, the pope will travel to Lourdes, a site of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide, where he will hold an open-air mass on September 27. He will also hold another mass at the cathedral in the northeastern city of Metz on September 28.
His visit to France will come after a previous trip to Spain in June, demonstrating the pope’s interest in engaging with historically Catholic but increasingly secular European countries, which had been largely overlooked by his predecessor, Francis.
