Paris has also surrendered to Leo XIV, following the success of his trip to Spain in June. His visit, the first to the French capital by a pope in 18 years, after the last one by Benedict XVI in 2008, has brought thousands of people to the streets, a notable milestone in a country that has made a flag of its secularism. Already on Friday, nearly 300,000 citizens came out to cheer the passage of the popemobile through the streets of the center, and 80,000 young people filled the Saint-Denis stadium at night, but this Saturday the forecasts were exceeded with a mass in the Place de la Concorde, which began at three in the afternoon and was attended by at least 700,000 people, according to the first calculations of the authorities. In 2008, under Benedict XVI, 260,000 attended.
Crowds thronged the Pope's 2.5-kilometre walk along the Champs-Elysées, which he covered slowly as children were passed to him for blessing. With Leo XIV, who in just over a year has confronted Donald Trump and warned of the risks of artificial intelligence, a sort of reconnection of France with the Pope has been established. Surely, French society and politics will wonder in the coming days about what this may mean.
In any case, as happened on the first day, Leo XIV delivered a completely pastoral and religious homily, carefully avoiding meddling fully in the ideological fight underway in France. The country faces decisive presidential elections in 2027 that for the first time could give victory to the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen's far-right party.
The Pope also avoids explicitly addressing hot-button issues because he moves with caution in a country where secularism is a republican pillar and religion is considered a matter of the private sphere, which should be outside the public sphere. In fact, the topic is continually in the background of this papal trip. Leo XIV mentioned it on the first day in the Elysée, and this Saturday it became evident again. First, during his visit to the Catholic Institute of Paris, where he once again made visible the weight of believers, who have experienced a surprising rise in the last year. And then it was present with an absence: as planned, the president, Emmanuel Macron, did not attend the mass, as a gesture of separation of the public and religious spheres. Yes, his wife, Brigitte, has done it.
The Pope had started the day with a visit to a migrant help center in the 18th district of the city, one of those with the largest presence of foreigners. The visit to Maison Bakhita, opened in 2021 to help migrants integrate, has been a significant gesture in the midst of RN's rise. But, however, here again Leo XIV has not had words as direct and forceful as those he used in Spain in June with the same question and on several occasions.
In the Pope's speech you had to read between the lines and pay attention to specific phrases to detect a political charge. For example, he has never uttered the word “immigration” or “immigrant,” or even “foreigner.” In a small room at the center, before the professionals, volunteers and people who frequent it, the Pontiff invited them to “see those who are made invisible, to free those whom the economy and culture today reduce to slavery, to honor the infinite dignity of each brother and sister.” “The history of the Church and of humanity, if we look at it more closely, is not written by those who give the impression of winning by imposing themselves and occupying space, but by those who make space, establish peace processes, generate trust and promote life,” he warned.
Leo XIV spoke these words in a brief speech at the center dedicated to Josephine Bakhita, the name of a Sudanese saint and symbol of the fight against slavery, because she herself was a slave. She died in 1947 and was canonized in 2000 by John Paul II. The Pope has mentioned her figure, "who invites us to recognize the fundamental role of women in the construction of a civilization of love, as an alternative to the culture that disintegrates communities and makes cities sick with loneliness."
This place serves about 150 people a day, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa and of Muslim religion, to help them make their way. French classes and training courses are offered, such as tailoring or carpentry. Since it opened in 2021, it has assisted 2,500 people.
The center represents the work, often silent and little seen in the media, of the Catholic Church with the weakest, like 45 other charity associations in the diocese of Paris. With his visit of just one hour, the Pontiff made the French television networks connect live, and more than him, they listened to the testimony of some of those foreigners to whom the center has provided support. Like Meysam, 35 years old, who arrived from Afghanistan in 2015. He said that in his country he was a tailor and came to Maison Bakhita for the French courses. "In life you should never give up. Every time I have been about to throw in the towel, I have always found someone who has extended a hand to me and allowed me to move forward despite everything. (...) A few months ago I was granted refugee status. I have found a job. Now I have confidence in life and my future," he said.
The Pope declares himself “marveled” by the increase in baptized adults
Another emotional testimony was that of a foreign woman named Blessing, 31 years old, who was not focused on by the cameras out of respect for her privacy. She has said that when she arrived in France she was forced “to do things she didn't want to do” and that it still hurts her to remember it. Until he came into contact with one of the Catholic associations that help migrants and that collaborate with the center: now he has papers and works in a restaurant. One of these associations is Aux Captifs, la Libération (To the captives, liberation), which looks for people who live on the streets or work in prostitution to give them a way out. The other is A Bras Ouverts (With Open Arms), which organizes weekend activities for people with disabilities.
The next stage of the day was an entire institution of the Church in Paris, the Catholic Institute, founded in 1875, heir to the colleges of humanistic studies and which has 11,000 students. In another small gesture, but again full of connotations, the Pope stopped for a moment on the so-called Staircase of the Martyrs, in the church of Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes, the place where 191 ecclesiastics, religious and lay people were murdered in 1792 during the French Revolution.
In his speech here, Leo "It may seem paradoxical that this phenomenon of so many people rediscovering the Gospel and embracing faith occurs in the context of a society like France, marked by a strongly secularized culture. Your experience and your testimony, dear catechumens and neophytes, are a tangible sign of the work of God's grace, which surpasses statistical and sociological analyses," he reflected.
