Pope Leo XIV in France: “So that the world may have life”

Pope Leo XIV made an apostolic journey to France from 25 to 28 September 2026, with stops in Paris, Lourdes and Metz. The motto of the trip was “So that the world may have life.”

Paris: a Church that restores

The Pope prayed Vespers at Notre-Dame, reopened in December 2024 after the April 2019 fire, visited Maison Bakhita, a welcome center for migrants, and met a synodal assembly. About 80,000 young people joined him for a prayer vigil at the Stade de France, and he celebrated Mass at Place de la Concorde before a crowd the Pope himself put at around 700,000 people, calling it a true “restoration” of the Church.

Lourdes and Metz

At the Marian shrine of Lourdes he took part in a torchlit procession and rosary and met abuse victims. The journey closed in Metz with an interreligious meeting in a region marked by the Second World War, where representatives of different faiths signed the “Metz Appeal” for dialogue and peace.

The message

• Rebirth: he said Notre-Dame’s restoration sheds light on the whole journey.
• Collaboration: Church, State and civil society working together for the common good, with human dignity as the guiding principle.
• Life: every human life, including the most fragile, deserves care and dignity.
• Peace in Europe: a continent born as a peace project after war, whose democratic and solidarity-based principles can be renewed.

At his general audience on 30 September, the Pope called the journey a sign of rebirth, noted the growing number of adult and youth baptisms in France, and recalled the beatification, on 27 September, of three priests killed by Nazi troops in 1944. He also asked the faithful to pray the rosary for peace in October.