Pope Leo XIV celebrated a vast open-air Mass in the heart of Paris on Saturday, telling a sea of worshippers that young people are not merely the future of the Catholic Church but "today's Church," as an estimated 700,000 people filled the Place de la Concorde and surrounding avenues for one of the largest religious gatherings in the French capital in years.
The pontiff, making the second stop of his four-day visit to France, arrived after riding down the Champs-Élysées in an open-topped popemobile, waving to crowds that lined the route. The spectacle underscored both the scale of the visit and the continuing pull of papal appearances in a country where secularism is deeply embedded in public life but where large Catholic gatherings still retain the power to mobilize hundreds of thousands.
From a specially erected altar, Leo urged Catholics not to keep faith private or inward-looking. Instead, he said, believers should "let it overflow so that those you meet may be refreshed." The message was aimed not only at the faithful in attendance but at a broader Church grappling with how to speak to younger generations in a rapidly changing social and technological landscape.
His remarks to young people drew some of the loudest applause. "How beautiful it is to see your enthusiasm, energy and commitment, and the joy you bring to Christian communities," he said, framing youth as a source of renewal rather than a demographic to be managed. The Vatican has increasingly emphasized the role of younger Catholics in sustaining the Church's public life, and Saturday's Mass appeared designed to showcase that vitality on a global stage.
The event also carried clear political overtones. French President Emmanuel Macron met the Pope on Friday but did not attend Saturday's Mass, a decision widely understood as an effort to avoid any suggestion of violating France's strict separation of Church and state. Even so, the gathering drew a notable political audience. Macron's wife, Brigitte, attended, along with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Several figures seen as potential contenders in next year's presidential election also appeared at the Place de la Concorde, including Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally, conservative Bruno Retailleau, and centrists Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal.
Earlier on Saturday, Leo visited the Maison Bakhita centre, which supports refugees and migrants, where he met migrants and volunteers and praised the organization for inviting "us to see those who are invisible." He also highlighted what he called the "fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love," linking the Church's social mission to questions of dignity, inclusion and service.
The Paris Mass came after a first day in which the Pope warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, cautioning at the Élysée Palace against "losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines." The warning reflected a broader theme of his visit: a call to preserve human dignity in an age of technological acceleration, social fragmentation and political uncertainty.
The scale of the crowds in Paris has reinforced the Church's view that spirituality remains a significant force in France and across Europe, despite decades of secularization. Organizers say large turnouts are expected for the rest of the trip, including about 150,000 people registered for Sunday's Mass at the Pyrenean sanctuary of Lourdes. Leo is then due to travel to Metz on Monday to pay tribute to Robert Schuman, the Catholic statesman and founding father of the European Union, who is being considered for beatification.
Born in Chicago in 1955 as Robert Prevost, Leo XIV also carries a French family connection: his paternal grandmother was born in Le Havre in Normandy in 1894. That lineage, while distant, adds another layer of symbolism to a visit that has combined religious ceremony, European memory and contemporary political resonance. For the thousands gathered in Paris, however, the central image was simpler: a pope blessing a massive crowd and telling the young that the Church needs their fire to keep moving forward.