Pope Francis and French President Emmanuel Macron met on Sunday during the pontiff’s visit to Corsica, where they discussed international concerns and shared a moment of levity about the importance of maintaining a sense of humor.
The 40-minute private meeting took place in a room at Ajaccio’s Napoleon Bonaparte Airport, where the two leaders addressed several pressing international issues, including conflicts in the Holy Land, Lebanon, and Ukraine.
Both expressed their desire for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and discussed the situation in Syria, advocating for a “just and inclusive” political transition that would protect minorities.
During their exchange, Macron presented the Pope with a book about Notre-Dame Cathedral, while Francis reciprocated with papal medals and magisterial documents. The Pope specifically recommended that Macron read his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, drawing attention to the passage referencing St. Thomas More’s prayer for a sense of humor.
“Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others,” reads the prayer, which Pope Francis has previously described as “very beautiful” and recites daily.
The meeting came just a week after the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, an event the pope declined to attend. Instead, he presided over a consistory at the Vatican, where he created 21 new cardinals on the same day, Dec. 7.
The brief but significant visit marked Francis’s 47th apostolic journey abroad. Earlier Sunday, the pope participated in a conference on popular piety in the Mediterranean region, where he advocated for “healthy secularism” that ensures political action without instrumentalizing religion.
In an unprecedented break from tradition, Pope Francis did not hold his usual in-flight press conference with journalists on the return journey to Rome. He did, however, thank the press corps for its presence and commented on Corsica being a land “of children,” stating: “I was happy to see a people that makes children: This is the future.”
The Pope celebrates his 88th birthday on Dec. 17.
This article was originally published on ACI Prensa and translated by National Catholic Register.
