Eighteen years after the last official papal state visit to France, the Successor of Peter returned to a country whose history is deeply intertwined with Christianity but which has also undergone decades of secularization.

For Pope Leo XIV, the journey through Paris, Lourdes and Metz became an opportunity to point to signs of renewed Catholic life while calling France and Europe to rediscover the Christian roots that helped shape their civilization.

For Catholics waiting to welcome the Pope in Paris, the visit carried particular significance.

“I am very happy to see these people, who are so happy to see and welcome Pope Leo,” said Father Philippe Berrached, an Augustinian of the Assumption. “Everyone I meet … are eagerly waiting and spiritually hungry to hear what he has to say.”

One of the first major moments came at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Seven years after the devastating fire that nearly destroyed the cathedral, Pope Leo venerated a relic of Christ’s Crown of Thorns and presented the restored church as a symbol extending beyond architecture.

“Notre-Dame is more than a monument,” he said. “The collective effort to rebuild it, and the splendour of the result reveal that the heart of a people beats here.”

For some French Catholics, the cathedral’s restoration parallels what they see happening within the Church itself.

“We are a nation with deeply Catholic roots, at least in terms of our history,” said Father Hubert Coeur-de-Roy, FSSP, a pilgrim from the Parish of St. Clément in Nantes.

“The fact that the Catholic Church is experiencing something of a revival in France is, for us, a great source of hope,” he added.

“You are the saints of France”

That sense of renewal was especially visible at the Stade de France, where nearly 80,000 young people gathered for a prayer vigil.

Following dramatic tableaux depicting the lives of French saints, Pope Leo addressed the young people with a striking declaration: “You are the saints of France!”

The evening also included the veneration of the Holy Tunic of Argenteuil, traditionally believed to have been worn by Christ during his Passion.

Addressing the young people, Pope Leo reflected on a word deeply associated with French culture: freedom.

“What is the source of true freedom?” he asked. “Jesus clearly reveals it when he tells us that it is the truth that will set us free; and that he is the truth.”

The Pope also highlighted the growing number of adults entering the Catholic Church in France. Speaking to the country’s synodal assembly, catechumens and newly baptized Catholics, he called on the Church to “recognize, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night.”

Hundreds of thousands gather in Paris

The scale of the Pope’s reception became even more visible at his final major event in Paris.

Some 800,000 people gathered for Mass in and around the Place de la Concorde, far exceeding organizers’ expectations.

“In a France shaped by decades of secularization, the need to expand the space for the papal Mass is not only a general spiritual revival, but it shows also how Pope Leo is able to mobilize the French Catholics and make their presence in society visible,” EWTN Vatican correspondent Magdalena Wolinska-Riedi said.

During the Mass, Pope Leo challenged Catholics to bring their faith beyond the walls of their churches.

“You long to rediscover a horizon filled with light and to build a renewed nation upon roots nourished by faith,” he said. “Do not keep this faith in Jesus Christ to yourselves.”

A pilgrim in Lourdes

From Paris, Pope Leo traveled to one of the world’s most important Marian shrines: Lourdes.

Welcomed by crowds of pilgrims, the Pope went to the Grotto of Massabielle, where the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

There, he entrusted the country to Mary: “We pray to you, our Mother, for France, for you are her Patroness and have protected her for so many centuries.”

Celebrating Mass the following day, Pope Leo called the faithful to conversion and penance and reflected on the Christian meaning of suffering and eternal life.

“Mary comes to remind us of the greatness and richness of our calling to life, to eternal life,” he said.

The Pope later joined Lourdes’ traditional candlelight procession.

While St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI had presided over the procession from a terrace during their visits, Pope Leo walked in the procession as a pilgrim among pilgrims.

Invoking the ancient Marian spirituality of the Church, he told the faithful: “Following her, you will never go astray; when you implore her aid, you will never yield to despair.”

Europe and its Christian roots

Pope Leo concluded his Apostolic Journey in Metz, where the legacy of Venerable Robert Schuman — a founding father of European integration and a devout Catholic — provided the backdrop for his final message.

The Pope emphasized the role Christianity played in the development of European civilization and argued that acknowledging this inheritance is not merely a religious concern.

“Recognizing Europe’s debt to Christianity helps us understand more clearly that openness to the transcendent is always a constitutive part of the human person and a living source of civilization,” he said.

From the restored stones of Notre-Dame to the young people filling the Stade de France, from the pilgrims of Lourdes to the European legacy of Robert Schuman, Pope Leo’s journey placed one question at the center of his visit: how France’s Christian inheritance can become a living faith capable of shaping its future.

Adapted by Jacob Stein. Magdalena Wolinska-Riedi contributed to this production.