Putri Anggraini
Several hundred thousands of people poured into central Paris on Saturday to take part in an open-air Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, with the Vatican estimating the crowd at some 700,000 — a figure that comfortably exceeded the 600,000 who had registered in advance of the event. The turnout underlined the extraordinary scale of interest in the head of the Catholic Church's first full visit to France in nearly two decades.
Much of the day's drama unfolded along the route rather than at the altar itself. Leo, riding in the popemobile, waved to flag-waving, cheering throngs as he travelled down the Champs-Elysees, the 1.9-kilometre (1.2-mile) avenue that serves as the ceremonial spine of the French capital. Police and organisers had clearly braced for a crowd of historic proportions, and the scale of the turnout on the day far surpassed even the most optimistic advance estimates.
The pilgrimage culminated at the Place de la Concorde, Paris's largest public square, where the American pontiff led hundreds of thousands of the faithful in prayer at an outdoor altar set in the heart of the city. The open-air format, in one of Europe's most secular capitals, was both a practical response to the numbers involved and a deliberate statement about the Church's desire to be seen in public space.
The Mass formed the centerpiece of a four-day tour that began on Friday, marking the first official papal visit to France in 18 years. For a Church whose relationship with French society has been badly frayed, the trip is designed less as a diplomatic formality than as an act of institutional repair — a chance for Leo to reconnect with a country that remains one of the most important laboratories of secularism in Europe.
Part of that repair work is about addressing abuse. Five years ago, an inquiry in France found that 330,000 children had been abused by clergy and lay members of the Roman Catholic Church over the span of seven decades. The pontiff has spent this visit seeking to improve the Church's standing in a country still absorbing the consequences of that scandal, an effort that makes a mass gathering of this size a pointed statement as much as a spiritual one.
At the same time, Leo has been challenging a recently approved French law allowing assisted dying. The disagreement places him in direct opposition to a measure passed by the French legislature, and adds a contested political edge to an otherwise pastoral journey. That tension was visible in the guest list, which drew a broad cross-section of French public life to the square.
French President Emmanuel Macron was not present for the Saturday Mass and was represented instead by his wife, Brigitte. Notably among the attendees was Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential hopeful who currently leads the polls ahead of next year's election, due in mid-April. Her presence at a papal Mass — at an event attended by a figure leading a campaign for France's highest office — is a reflection of the extraordinary political weight the Church still commands, even in a secular state.
The mood of the gathering drew pointed comparison with earlier papal visits to France. Francois Mabille, director of the Geopolitical Observatory on Religion, told broadcaster RMC that the atmosphere carried "a sense of fervour reminiscent of that experienced over 40 years ago with John Paul II" — a comparison suggesting that the enthusiasm on display in Paris has few recent equivalents.
That enthusiasm had already been on display a day earlier. On Friday, an estimated 300,000 people turned out to see the pontiff as he waved from the popemobile on his way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The scale of the Friday crowd, coming on the heels of an estimated 300,000 the following day, suggests the visit has captured public attention well beyond the Church's own congregation.
Leo's schedule on Friday also included a meeting with Macron and a rare speech at the Elysee Palace, the official presidential residence. In addressing the nation from such a setting, the pope praised French society, describing it as the product of "a people whose diverse origins have enlivened and enriched the nation and its democracy" — remarks widely read as a deliberate olive branch to a country whose demographic and civic character he has been careful to honour.
The pope also used the trip to weigh in on artificial intelligence, warning that a "paradise of machines" could cause people to lose their humanity. The intervention is a recurring theme of Leo's pontificate, which has consistently placed the social and ethical consequences of technology near the centre of his public messaging.
The final phase of the journey takes the pontiff to the southwestern town of Lourdes, where on Sunday he is due to meet seven French victims who were abused by members of the clergy. That meeting, coming at the end of a tour built around appeals for reconciliation and institutional renewal, is likely to be the most emotionally charged moment of the visit.
The broader significance of the weekend is difficult to overstate. The Catholic Church's influence in secular France has gradually dwindled over recent decades, and figures on this scale are a measure of how much remains of the Church's capacity to mobilise. A Vatican estimate of 700,000, exceeding 600,000 advance registrations, will be studied closely as evidence that the papacy can still fill the country's most emblematic public spaces.
For Leo, the bet is that visibility, empathy and scale can rebuild trust faster than decades of declining attendance eroded it. Whether the crowds on the Champs-Elysees and in the Place de la Concorde translate into anything lasting for a Church seeking to repair its relationship with French society will take more than four days to determine.
Photography by Remo Casilli/Reuters captured the pope waving from the popemobile as it made its way to the Place de la Concorde for the open-air Mass, part of his four-day apostolic journey to France, on Saturday, September 26, 2026. The report was compiled by Al Jazeera staff with contributions from AFP and Reuters.
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