Paris Soir - Pope arrives in France on first official visit in 18 years

Church bells rang around the nation when the first US pontiff, whose paternal grandmother was born in France, landed outside Paris just before 10:00 am (0800 GMT) for a four-day trip.

President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte greeted the 71-year-old pope at the airport, where a red carpet was rolled out on the tarmac, as he marked the first official trip by a head of the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI in September 2008.

"I'm travelling to France, as to anywhere else in the world, as a follower of Jesus Christ wanting to proclaim peace, the peace of Christ throughout the world," Pope Leo told reporters on the plane.

He said this message was "particularly important" at the current time.

A million people are expected at events across Paris during the first two days of his trip.

The high point of the apostolic journey will be a giant mass on Saturday, led by the pontiff at Place de la Concorde and adjoining Champs-Elysees.

Pope Leo will also visit Lourdes, a pilgrimage site for Christians worldwide, and Metz, near the German border and closely associated with Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of what is now the European Union.

"The pope's visit gives me a sense of peace in a troubled world," said Andree Estienne, 76, adding she could not wait to attend the mass on the Champs-Elysees.

"I don't think I will experience anything of this scale again in my lifetime."

Seven months ahead of elections to replace Macron, in which the far right is eyeing power, the pope is expected to touch on topics ranging from the dangers of artificial intelligence and the migration crisis to clerical sexual abuse and peace in Europe.

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics will visit the presidential palace on Friday, before a speech expected to focus on the need to regulate AI at UNESCO headquarters.

- 'To be near him' -

Later Friday, Leo is to wave to the crowds on a 2.5-kilometre (1.5-mile) popemobile ride to the Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris, where he will be the first pope to inspect renovations following a devastating 2019 fire.

His predecessor Pope Francis -- who visited France three times, but never officially -- did not attend the Gothic masterpiece's reopening in late 2024, when then president-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests.

Carmen Quintana, a 71-year-old Peruvian, said she would be among the crowd.

"We're very happy to be able to be near him," she said of the pontiff, who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru and also holds Peruvian nationality.

Last on his agenda will be a mass prayer and hymns with 80,000 young believers aged 17 to 35 in stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

A relic, believed to be the tunic Jesus wore during the Passion, will have been transported out of the nearby Saint-Denis Cathedral to the stadium for the occasion.

Only around five percent of France's 69 million residents go to Catholic church regularly, a survey last year found, in a deeply secular country that has enshrined the right to abortion in the constitution and approved assisted dying for some patients.

But while the number of infant christenings has dwindled in recent years, teenage and adult baptisms are on the rise, with thousands choosing to embrace the faith.

The French president will not attend Saturday's giant mass, but several presidential hopefuls, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe, have confirmed their attendance.

- Peace in Europe -

After Paris, Pope Leo will head to Lourdes, a town in southwestern France where, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a grotto in 1858 to a peasant girl.

In Lourdes, he will speak on Sunday with seven victims of clerical sex abuse.

A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over seven decades.

In recent years, further accusations have emerged against charity icon Abbe Pierre and workers at a Catholic boarding school near Lourdes.

For the last leg of his trip in Metz, on Monday, Leo is expected to make a speech about peace in Europe, as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine drags into its fifth year.

G.Perrin--PS