Pope Leo XIV arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening, landing at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées International Airport to begin the next stage of his four-day France visit, hours after drawing hundreds of thousands of worshippers to an outdoor Mass at Paris’ Place de la Concorde.
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Leo opened his pilgrimage in Lourdes with a prayer at the Grotto of the Apparitions, the site where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and one of the faith’s most-visited shrines.
On Sunday, the pope will meet with French bishops before celebrating an outdoor Mass in the sanctuary’s Prairie, followed by the Angelus prayer. In the afternoon, he is due to meet staff and sick people at the Accueil Notre-Dame and hold a private meeting with contemplative religious sisters.
Leo will also meet privately with seven survivors of sexual abuse by priests and other Catholic personnel — a moment likely to be closely watched by critics who argue the church has not done enough to address the issue. Some survivors’ groups have criticised the Vatican’s choice to meet with individuals rather than representatives of established advocacy organisations. The visit to Lourdes will close Sunday evening with one of the sanctuary’s signature rites, a Rosary recitation and torchlight procession.
A record-breaking mass in Paris
Leo’s arrival in Lourdes capped a whirlwind of roughly 32 hours in the French capital, where he paraded through central Paris in his popemobile, addressed UNESCO’s headquarters, and celebrated an open-air Mass that drew far more people than organisers had anticipated.
Around 600,000 people had registered in advance for Saturday’s Mass at Place de la Concorde, but the Vatican estimated actual turnout at roughly 800,000 — about 200,000 more than expected. Some 2,400 priests and deacons and about 100 bishops took part in the service.
As the pope travelled down the Champs-Élysées toward the Concorde, crowds lined a security perimeter stretching nearly two miles from the square past the Arc de Triomphe. Metro stations along the route were closed as part of the security operation, and chants of “Leo! Leo!” rang out as he passed. Parents lifted babies and young children toward the popemobile throughout the ride, and the pope reached out to touch dozens of them.
In his homily, Leo urged the faithful not to keep their beliefs private but to let their faith be visible enough to bring comfort to others.
French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend Saturday’s Mass and is not expected to attend any of the pope’s Masses during the visit. His wife, Brigitte Macron, was present, alongside Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
A test of faith in a secularising country
The visit has doubled as a message to French Catholics to hold onto their faith even as church attendance declines nationally. Leo began the trip on Friday with a visit to the newly restored Notre-Dame Cathedral, the first papal visit there since the fire that devastated the building in 2019.
Speaking earlier Saturday at the Catholic Institute of Paris, the pope said he had been struck by the growing number of adults converting to Catholicism in France, describing it as a small but resilient flame worth protecting. Adult baptisms in the country have nearly tripled since 2016, reaching about 13,000 this year — though the increase, also seen recently in Spain, hasn’t reversed the broader decline. France recorded 513,000 baptisms in 1980, compared with 186,000 in 2024.
Observers noted that Saturday’s crowds and their enthusiasm echoed other moments of mass celebration on the Champs-Élysées in recent decades, including France’s World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018.
Many of those who turned out, organisers said, were not just practising Catholics but those who came simply to witness the event.
