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Pope Leo Draws 800,000 to Paris Mass
Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV celebrated a historic open-air Mass on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Saturday, drawing an estimated 800,000 people, according to the Vatican. The event marked the first papal Mass in Paris since Pope Benedict XVI’s in 2008, which attracted around 250,000 people.
The pope’s procession began with a 1.2-mile parade through the city, with worshippers lining the streets and waving French flags. He greeted the crowd from his popemobile, stopping to bless babies along the way.
At the Place de la Concorde, Pope Leo delivered a homily urging the faithful to share their faith and not keep it to themselves. He emphasized the importance of the Christian heritage in France, encouraging people to drink from the source of Jesus’ pierced heart.
The Mass was part of a four-day apostolic journey that included visits to Notre Dame Cathedral, the Catholic Institute of Paris, and UNESCO. The pope’s message focused on social justice and unity, resonating with people of various faiths and backgrounds.
Pope Leo’s visit also highlighted the tension between the French Republic’s secularism and the deep-rooted Catholic heritage. President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the pope but did not attend the Mass.
The pope’s message appealed to the conscience of all French people, according to Macron, and the event was seen as a powerful statement about the vibrancy of Catholicism in France.
French Ambassador to the Holy See Charles Personnaz described the pope’s visit as a 'very living exchange between the pope and the people of France,' and said it encouraged young people to engage for peace and not be afraid of the future.
The event offered a striking contrast to the massive Paris spectacle just two years earlier, with the pope’s visit combining religious ceremonies with engagements focused on social issues, technology, migration, and European history.
What this adds
The scale of Leo's Mass sent a powerful message about the vibrancy of Catholicism in a country that has thought to cast off its religious roots.
The decision to celebrate a papal Mass on the Champs-Élysées drew criticism from supporters of France’s strict separation of church and state, who argued another site would have been more appropriate.
Background
Pope Leo XIV declines full state honors during his visit to France, opting for a simpler apostolic journey.
The Pope's packed schedule in Paris also includes a visit to UNESCO, vespers at Notre-Dame, a youth vigil at the Stade de France, and a Mass at the Place de la Concorde, expected to draw a record-breaking crowd of over 600,000 people.
What's confirmed
- “From this beautiful city of Paris, I pray fervently that the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow throughout France,” he said.
- “The message of Pope Leo goes well beyond Catholic people; he speaks about social justice, for example,” said Leontine Joseph, 42, a fervent Catholic who came with two friends of Moroccan origin who grew up in Muslim culture.
- It began on Friday with his arrival and prayer at the restored Notre Dame, the first by a pope since the cathedral’s devastating 2019 fire.
- During a visit to the Catholic Institute of Paris on Saturday morning, the pope said he was surprised by the numbers of new converts registered in recent years and grateful for what he said was God’s “unfathomable work” to counter all statistical and sociological analysis.
- “People are seeing a lot of really terrible images. This kind of event reminds people of what is really important in life,” said Thierry Chen, a 40-year-old Parisian startup entrepreneur who is not Catholic.
- “It’s not only about seeing the pope but it also is about his message of peace and unity, values I’d like to share with them,” she said.
- PARIS — Hundreds of thousands of people packed Paris’ iconic Champs-Élysées avenue for Pope Leo XIV’s big outdoor Mass on Saturday, a sign of the Catholic Church’s enduring appeal in the once staunchly Catholic but officially secular country.
- The American pope greeted the flag-waving, cheering throngs from his popemobile during a 1.2-mile parade along the grand boulevard leading to the Place de la Concorde for Mass, essentially the heart of Paris and a symbol of the French republic.
- Although a massive security blanket shut down central Paris to road traffic, the party-like atmosphere drew people of multiple faiths and no faith at all.
- The pope called on French Catholics not to keep that rich inheritance to themselves.
- The decision to celebrate a papal Mass there drew criticism from supporters of France’s strict separation of church and state, who argued another site would have been more appropriate.
- The images also offered a striking contrast with another massive Paris spectacle just two years earlier.
What's still developing
- Such a large turnout Sept. 26, the second of his four days in the country, caught even the local authorities by surprise; the Archdiocese of Paris had announced that the police had opened two overflow sites to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowds.
- And in his first public Mass in France, where the church is reconciling its declining numbers with a sudden surge of interest among young adults, the pope urged French to recall its Christian heritage to satisfy the "thirst for meaning, for truth and fulfilment" that exists in the human heart.
- Pope Leo XIV stands in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus as he celebrates an open-air Mass at the Place de la Concorde in Paris during his four-day apostolic journey to France, Sept. 26, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier) Alexandre Lehir, 20, said that young French people are being drawn to Christianity in part due to the uncertainty they feel around the state of the world.
- Learn more Paris — September 26, 2026 Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email to a friend Print The more than mile-long Champs-Élysées boulevard was filled end-to-end with enthusiastic crowds — over 700,000 people — jockeying to get a glimpse of Pope Leo XIV on his way to celebrate Mass in Paris.
- (OSV News/Reuters/Remo Casilli) The scale of Leo's Mass sent a powerful message about the vibrancy of Catholicism in a country that has thought to cast off its religious roots.
- The 2008 Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in Paris was attended by some 250,000 people, less than half of those at Leo's Mass.
- And the last pope to ride down the Champs-Élysées was St.
- Throughout the Paris leg of his Sept. 25-28 apostolic journey, Pope Leo argued that France’s deeply rooted tradition of secularism, or “laïcité,” need not exclude religion from public life.
- Yet Catholicism remains deeply embedded in French history and culture, said Florian Michel, a historian and theologian at the Sorbonne in Paris.
- PARIS (CNS) — On the first official papal state visit to France in 18 years, Pope Leo XIV stepped into one of the country’s perpetual underlying tensions: the place of religion in a republic whose modern political identity was partly forged through separation from the Catholic Church.
- He told Pope Leo that his message would appeal “to the conscience of all French people.” The relationship between Catholicism and the French Republic, however, has been marked for centuries by both intimacy and conflict.
- Pope Leo XIV has drawn hundreds of thousands of worshippers to central Paris for a major open-air Mass during his four-day visit to France, with large crowds lining the Champs-Élysées to welcome the pontiff.