Crowds stretched this Saturday (the 26th) along the entire length of the Champs-Élysées in Paris, as Pope Leo urged Catholics to find happiness in faith, not in material things, at the largest event of his visit to France: an outdoor Mass attended by about 800,000 people.
Shouts of “Leo, Leo” and “Long live the Pope” echoed along the tree-lined avenue of about 2 km, from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, as people crowded against security barriers to catch a glimpse of Leo as he passed in an open popemobile.
The vehicle stopped frequently as people waved white and yellow Vatican flags and Leo blessed people with disabilities, children, and babies brought to him by volunteers.
Among those present were Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French president; the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who leads polling for next year’s presidential election; Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu; and Bernard Arnault, the billionaire head of the luxury group LVMH.
Aplausos ecoaram na multidão quando Leão agradeceu a Deus em seu sermão pela oportunidade de visitar a França em uma viagem relâmpago de quatro dias por três cidades, durante a qual ele busca restaurar a reputação da Igreja após escândalos de abuso que causaram comoção em todo o país.
O papa disse aos católicos que somente a fé deve lhes proporcionar a verdadeira felicidade.
“Only God can fill the emptiness inside us,” the pope said.
Benoit Dedieu-Anglade, of 67 years, said after the Mass that he was impressed by the speech.
“We must not yield to the easiest path nor to distractions — and I was moved by the way he expressed this in such clear and lucid French,” he said.
Message of Peace
Participants began gathering before sunrise to hear the pontiff at the noontime Mass.
The pope, who has vocally criticized the direction of global leadership in recent months, warned in a Friday speech at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris — the UN body responsible for culture and education — that the UN and other multilateral groups were in crisis.
He also repeated his frequent appeal for the world to rethink the development of artificial intelligence, telling French leaders that AI could create a future in which “a paradise of machines” takes control of the Earth.
He has also frequently spoken out in favor of peace, including in statements with French leaders at the Élysée Palace on Friday. His comments criticizing the war in Iran earlier this year drew a rebuke from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Pierre-Marie Estienne, 36, was in the crowd for Leo’s Mass in central Paris with his wife and four young children.
“We live in an era of great materialism,” he said before Leo’s arrival. “There is much evil around us, so we need a message of hope and love.”
Newly Baptized
France, a secular nation where the separation of Church and State is enshrined in a 1905 law, has witnessed a steady decline in affiliation to the Catholic Church since World War II, reflecting a trend seen in other traditionally Catholic countries.
Although the French Episcopal Conference points to an increase in adult baptisms, including a record 21,000 at Easter last year, a report published by the official statistics agency, INSEE, showed that only 25% of French people between 18 and 49 identify as Catholic, compared with 43% a decade earlier.
During a Saturday visit to the newly baptized Catholics at the Catholic University of Paris, before Mass, Leo urged the French Church not to be “naively optimistic” about the recent rise in the number of faithful.
“We must acknowledge, welcome and protect the small flame the Holy Spirit lit in the darkness of night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid thorns,” he said.
Later this Saturday, Leo will move on to Lourdes, site of a Catholic shrine. There, on Sunday he will meet seven French victims of abuse by clergy.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Elizabeth Pineau; additional reporting by Makini Brice)
