Pope Leo the 14th called for "coexistence with dignity and peace", this Saturday (26), during a meeting with migrants, hours before a mass for 600,000 people on the Champs-Élysées, in Paris, as part of his first visit to France.
As ultra and far right parties gain ground in Europe with anti-immigration rhetoric, the Peruvian-American pontiff decided to visit Casa Bakhita, a Catholic association that helps migrants, where he heard testimonies from exiles from Afghanistan and Nigeria.
"I'm happy to start this second day in Paris with you, in this house that is a testimony to the entire city that it is possible to meet and live together with dignity and peace", emphasized the grandson of immigrants.
The name of the house, founded in 2017 after Pope Francis' call to "welcome, protect and integrate" foreigners, honors Josefina Bakhita, an enslaved Sudanese woman who became a nun and was later canonized by the Catholic Church.
"Saint Bakhita invites us to see those who are invisible, to free those whom the economy and culture reduce to slavery today, to honor the infinite dignity of each brother and sister", added Leão.
For those responsible for the center, the pope's visit was a message, especially as immigration is expected to be one of the central themes in next year's presidential elections in France, where ultra-right candidate Marine Le Pen is leading the polls.
"Many more people are in favor of welcoming migrants and building a new society, this civilization of love that the Pope speaks of", emphasized Marcela Villalobos, coordinator of the Catholic Chaplaincies for Migration of the French Episcopal Conference, after the visit to Casa Bakhita.
Since his election as pope in May 2015, Robert Francis Prevost has frequently defended the dignity of exiles and refugees and has not hesitated to criticize US President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
The first papal visit to Paris since Benedict XVI, in 2008, was received with great popular enthusiasm in the officially secular country. On Friday (25), 300,000 people greeted him during his ride in the popemobile through the streets of the capital, and later, 80,000 young people welcomed him like a rock star during a vigil at the Stade de France, north of Paris.
Around 600,000 faithful are expected this Saturday in Paris for the mass presided over by the pope at Place de la Concorde and Champs-Élysées, starting at 1pm (Brasília time).
Seven months before the presidential elections in France, crucial for the European Union, several candidates will participate in the mass, including Le Pen, but not the current head of state, Emmanuel Macron, whose term ends in May.
Pope Leo the 14th is also intrigued by the rise in baptisms of young people in France over the past five years, amid a general decline in religious practice. He plans to meet with newly baptized and those about to be baptized this Saturday at the Paris Catholic Institute.
After the mass, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics will head to the sanctuary of Lourdes, in the south of France, which receives three million visitors a year, for the second stage of his visit. He will meet privately on Sunday (27) with victims of sexual abuse in church and, the following day, will conclude his trip in Metz with a speech on peace and the European Union.
But the most important messages were transmitted soon after his arrival in France. Before the French authorities, Leão 14 on Friday addressed secularism — which "does not consist of excluding religion from the public sphere" — as well as the dangers of artificial intelligence and euthanasia.
In particular, he condemned "genetic manipulation, surrogacy, organ trafficking" and "the offer of programmed death", defending the "right to life" as the foundation of human rights, in a criticism of the French government. France was the first country to enshrine the "guaranteed freedom" of abortion in its Constitution, in 2024, and in July it approved the right to euthanasia and assisted suicide in certain cases.
