“We can live together in dignity and peace,” Pope Leo XIV said Saturday
The inaugural American pontiff is undertaking a four-day French visit while the nation prepares for upcoming elections to succeed centrist leader Emmanuel Macron, with anti-immigration far-right movements positioning themselves for a potential electoral breakthrough.
During the second day of the first papal visit to this European country in nearly two decades, the spiritual leader of approximately 1.4 billion Catholics will preside over a prayer service beginning at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT). Approximately 600,000 attendees were projected for the gathering at Place de la Concorde extending along the adjacent Champs-Élysées.
While President Macron will remain absent from the ceremony, multiple presidential contenders, including far-right figure Marine Le Pen and centrist candidate Edouard Philippe, have pledged their participation.
Earlier that day, the pontiff visited Maison Bakhita, an organization dedicated to assisting migrants and refugees. “I am pleased to begin this second day in Paris with you, in a house that bears witness to the whole city that it is possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace,” he said.
He was scheduled to engage with individuals of Christian and Islamic backgrounds originating from Algeria, Belarus, Iraq, and Côte d'Ivoire, according to the organization's announcement, characterizing the visit as a "statement" preceding the electoral period.
“The pope is coming to tell the French that, whatever our political convictions, we share a common humanity and a right to dignity,”The pope has called the treatment of migrants in the United States “extremely disrespectful” and said, “we have to look for ways of treating people humanely.”
His Holiness Pope Leo XIV's significant four-day apostolic mission throughout France has generated profound spiritual fervor and jubilation among several hundred thousand devoted Catholic faithful.
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