Hundreds of thousands in Paris cheer Pope Leo in largest event of French tour

Pope Leo XIV visited Paris as part of a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots. An estimated 800,000 people gathered in central Paris for an outdoor mass, the largest event of his visit. The mass was held on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where chants of "Leo, Leo" and "Long live the Pope" echoed through the crowd.

During the mass, Pope Leo urged Catholics to find happiness in faith, not material things. He also rode along the Champs Elysees in an open-top Popemobile, blessing people with disabilities, children, and babies. The crowd included several high-profile attendees, such as Brigitte Macron, the French president's wife, and Marine Le Pen, a far-right leader.

After the Paris mass, Pope Leo travelled to Lourdes, where he prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, a holy shrine associated with the visions reported by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. On Sunday, he is scheduled to meet seven French victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, as well as French bishops, and celebrate another outdoor Mass at the sanctuary. According to a 2021 inquiry, clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France over seven decades.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News AU, New Straits Times, The Age, Euronews — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.