The Pope is arriving in Paris like a rock star next month, taking centre stage at a mass rally of French youth in the Stade de France. The stadium’s 80,000 seats were quickly snapped up online for Leo XIV’s evening prayer vigil on 25 September.
The following day, the Pope will celebrate an open-air mass in Place de la Concorde. More than 200,000 worshippers have already reserved places and a sea of 300,000 faithful are expected to congregate in the nearby Champs-Élysées.
The stage is also set for delicate diplomatic tensions when the Pope meets with French president Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace. Macron’s government just adopted a law permitting assisted suicide. The Pope has publicly expressed his opposition to legalised euthanasia. It is believed Macron hastily promulgated the law last month so the issue will not be hanging in the air during the Pope’s official visit to France.
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Ed West
