Pope Leo XIV greeted by Paris crowds ahead of open-air Mass

Crowds cheered as Pope Leo XIV travelled down the Champs-Élysées in his popemobile on Saturday 26 September, passing the Arc de Triomphe before a planned open-air Mass in Paris. People had gathered at barriers before sunrise, and police closed nearby streets. [1] [2]

More than 600,000 people had registered for the mid-afternoon Mass, Reuters reported. That was a registration figure, not an attendance count. An altar had been built on the Place de la Concorde for the ceremony. [1] [2]

Leo also visited migrants at the Maison Bakhita centre and met newly baptised Catholics at the Catholic University of Paris. He urged the French church not to be “naively optimistic” about a recent rise in adherents. Reuters reported that the French Bishops’ Conference recorded 21,000 adult baptisms last Easter, while figures from statistics agency INSEE showed that 25% of 18- to 49-year-olds identified as Catholic, down from 43% a decade earlier. [1] [2]