Visit of Pope Leo XIV to Paris: a giant mass at Place de la Concorde

The sovereign pontiff must celebrate a giant mass from 3 p.m. on the Place de la Concorde, which 600,000 people will attend.

The Pope continues his trip to the capital. After going to the Catholic Institute of Paris to meet new and future baptized people, Saturday September 26, Leo His procession will take him to Place de la Concorde, before celebrating a giant mass at 3 p.m. Some 600,000 people gathered.

Pope Leo XIV went in the morning to Maison Bakhita, a diocesan association for welcoming migrants. On this occasion, he pleaded for “living together in dignity and peace”.

The faithful will be able to gather on the Place de la Concorde, or the Champs-Elysées, from 9 a.m. Many metro stations will be closed around the Champs-Elysées. A one and a half hour mass, devoted largely to the Virgin Mary, is planned in front of a large golden cross four meters high.

The sovereign pontiff will leave the capital at the end of the day, heading towards Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), via the special plane made available to him by the company Air France.

Pope Leo XIV leaves from the 16th arrondissement of Paris towards the Arc de Triomphe. He is accompanied by a large police procession (in total, 14,000 members of the police will be mobilized this weekend).

Dozens of gatherings are planned across France in the wake of a record summer for heat and fires in France. In Clermont-Ferrand, an accident marked the demonstration this morning. A motorist drove into the crowd and knocked down several participants, reports ICI Auvergne. He was arrested by the police.

The police officer suspected of having thrown to the ground last June a young homeless person, who died several days after the police intervention, "was placed under judicial supervision until the date of the hearing set for November 6, 2026", announced the Carcassonne prosecutor's office.

Thanks to their victory in the semi-final of the Euro volleyball against Finland last night, the Blues face Poland in the final this evening.

In a column signed in the newspaper Le Monde, a group of personalities involved in the Church calls for the Pope's visit to France to highlight "the shortage" of priests in the country. “In 2000, France had 976 seminarians; in 2023, there would be only 679 – a decrease of around a third in more than twenty years,” they warn.

During Leo XIV's visit to the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron presented Stéphane Bern to the pope as "a person who did a lot for the churches of our countryside".

Pope Leo XIV is expected Monday in Metz, the last stop on his trip to France after Paris and Lourdes. He must celebrate a peace mass at Saint-Étienne Cathedral. It is on this same square that the UN1TÉ East Zone police union has chosen to gather tomorrow evening to denounce their working conditions.