Hundreds of thousands of people have welcomed Pope Leo XIV in central Paris ahead of a massive open-air Mass.
The crowds cheered as the pontiff travelled down the Champs-Élysées Avenue below the Arc de Triomphe, waving to onlookers from his pope-mobile.
The head of the Catholic Church blessed a number of babies as he paused at various points along the avenue, while chants of “Leo, Leo” filled the air.
Over half a million people are anticipated to join the event in the heart of the French capital on Saturday, and a special altar has been erected on the Place de la Concorde for the ceremony.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who held an hour of talks with Leo on Friday, will not attend any of the Pope’s Masses during his four-day visit to France, largely in order to avoid breaching France’s strict separation of state and religion.
However, the Champs-Élysées Mass will be attended by Macron’s wife Brigitte and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
A number of candidates for next year’s presidential election are also expected to be present.
Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally party and conservative Bruno Retailleau were both photographed at the Place de la Concorde before the event, while centrists Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal are likewise due to attend.
The Mayor of Le Havre and former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, along with former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, were also both spotted at the Place de la Concorde.
Earlier on Saturday, the Pope met migrants during a visit to the Maison Bakhita center, an association that supports refugees, and commended the organization for inviting “us to see those who are invisible.”
During the visit, Leo said it was “possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace.”
He also emphasized “the fundamental role of women in building a civilization of love.”
The Pope likewise raised a warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) at the beginning of his visit to France on Friday.
In wide-ranging remarks to Church and state officials at the Élysée Palace, Leo cautioned against “losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines.”
Large crowds are expected throughout the pontiff’s trip, which the Church believes reflects a growing spirituality among the French and other Europeans.
On Sunday, 150,000 people have signed up to attend mass in the Pyrenean sanctuary of Lourdes.
The Pope will be in Metz, in northeast France, on Monday, where he will pay tribute to Robert Schuman (1886-1963), a founding father of the European Union and a devout Catholic who is today a candidate for beatification.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Pope Leo XIV was originally named Robert Prevost—a French name.
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 adopted the name Prevost, which had been her mother’s maiden name.
