Hundreds of thousands expected in Paris for Pope's visit

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, Pope Leo begins his visit in the French capital, before moving on to Lourdes and Metz.

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Pope Leo XIV embarks on a four-day visit to France on Friday, with the highpoint being a giant Mass attended by more than half a million people in central Paris.

For Saturday's afternoon celebration, an altar has been built on the Place de la Concorde and a large area around the Champs-Élysées sealed off by police.

Some 600,000 Catholic faithful are expected to cram the avenue up to the Arc de Triomphe and beyond.

Grandes multidões também estão previstas em outros pontos do itinerário do Papa, refletindo um entusiasmo que a Igreja atribui ao crescente desejo espiritual entre os franceses e outros europeus.

O presidente Emmanuel Macron cumprirá o Papa no aeroporto de Orly na manhã de sexta-feira, e depois terá conversas com ele no Palácio do Élysée sobre questões geopolíticas e inteligência artificial (IA).

Ele também dará um discurso com o Papa em Metz.

However, the president will not be at any of the Pope's Masses, largely to avoid breaching France's strict separation of state and religion.

Em vez disso, a Missa dos Campos-Elísios será acompanhada por sua esposa Brigitte e pelo Primeiro-Ministro Sébastien Lecornu. Vários candidatos à eleição presidencial do próximo ano também estão previstos, incluindo Marine Le Pen da direita nacionalista, os centrões Edouard Philippe e Gabriel Attal, e o conservador Bruno Retailleau.

There were reports of tensions between Macron and the Vatican team sent to make arrangements, with the president allegedly frustrated in his wish for a more ceremonial aspect to the visit.

This was dismissed this week by Élysée officials, who said it was customary to offer a visiting head of state – which the Pope is – a range of high-profile events, such as a cavalry escort down the Champs-Élysées.

But they said it was never expected that the Pope would actually take the offer up.

Confirmaram que o Papa Leão recusou a ideia de Macron de uma reunião com artesãos que ajudaram a reconstruir a catedral de Notre-Dame devastada pelo incêndio. Isso ocorreu porque a agenda dele estava muito apertada, disseram.

After a Popemobile ride through crowds to Notre-Dame cathedral on Friday afternoon, Pope Leo XIV will be joined in the evening by 80,000 young people at the Stade de France in northern Paris.

On Sunday 150,000 have signed up to attend mass in the Pyrenean sanctuary of Lourdes.

Fonte da imagem, AFP via Getty Images. Legenda da imagem, Preparativos estão em curso em Lourdes antes da visita.

On Monday the Pope will be in Metz, in northeast France, where he will pay tribute to Robert Schuman (1886-1963), a founding father of the European Union and a fervent Catholic who is today a candidate for beatification.

The Pope will also meet a group of migrants in Paris, and in Lourdes some victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.

Nascido em Chicago em 1955, o Papa Leão XIV era originalmente chamado de Robert Prevost – um nome francês.

In fact his paternal grandmother was born in Le Havre in Normandy in 1894. When she married in the US many years later she and her Italian husband took the name Prevost, which had been her mother's maiden-name.

France has a historically complex relationship with the Catholic Church of Rome. The country was long known as the "Eldest Daughter of the Church" because supposedly, but inaccurately, it was the first kingdom to convert to Christianity.

Na verdade, Armênia, Geórgia e Etiópia precederam isso.

No século XIV, a papauté foi exilada para Avignon, no sul da França, e, ao longo dos séculos seguintes, exércitos franceses intervieram periodicamente na política italiana, onde os papas eram governantes seculares além de chefes da Igreja.

Napoleon held two popes in captivity.

Recent popes have all come to France, most notably John-Paul II, who came several times between 1980 and 2004, and Pope Francis who came three times, but avoided Paris, going instead to Strasbourg, Marseilles and Corsica.

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Pope John Paul II, pictured here in Paris in 1980, visited many times.

Today France has secularised with the rest of Europe, and less than half of the population identifies as Catholic.

The number of regular worshippers has fallen from 35% of the population in 1960 to less than 5% today, while the number of priests has shrunk by two-thirds from 25,000 in 1990 to fewer than 9,000.

But in recent years there have been signs of a growing interest in religious tradition, with the number of adult baptisms more than doubling in five years to hit 10,000 in 2025.

França realmente se secularizou, mas há um vazio onde Deus e os valores costumavam estar, disse o Cardenal François Bustillo, Bispo de Ajaccio.

People are searching for something. Maybe they go to India or Tibet or the Amazon. And now the Pope comes here from Rome, bringing a reminder to people of their own roots.

Foi o João Paulo II quem despertou o Oriente. Agora Leo XIV despertará o Ocidente," ele disse.

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