The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-26 · by Joshua McElwee, Elizabeth Pineau
During Pope Leo's visit to Paris, he led an outdoor Mass on Avenue des Champs-Élysées that attracted approximately 800,000 people. The event featured chants and waving Vatican flags as the Pope traveled along the two-kilometer avenue in his Popemobile, blessing attendees. Among those present were French first lady Brigitte Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen. In his sermon, Leo emphasized finding happiness through faith rather than material possessions and addressed the decline of Catholic affiliation in France since World War II.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-27,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Pope Leo XIV drew 800,000 people to an open-air Mass in Paris, held at the iconic Place de la Concorde, on Saturday. The event was part of his four-day visit to France, aimed at promoting Catholic teachings amid a secular country. Despite sharp declines in church attendance over recent decades, the large turnout testified to the Church's enduring influence in France. However, the choice of Place de la Concorde as the venue for the Mass was criticized by supporters of France’s strict separation between church and state. As the Pope moved down the Champs-Élysées, cheering crowds waved Vatican flags and greeted him with chants like "Leo, Leo."
Written for “Pope Leo Paris Mass Crowd” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 36 other(s) covering the same event.
Crowds stretched the length of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris as Pope Leo urged Catholics to find happiness in faith, not material things, at the biggest event of his visit to France, an outdoor Mass with an estimated 800,000 people.
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Leo → stretch → people
Chants of “Leo, Leo” and “Long live the Pope” echoed down the roughly two-kilometre tree-lined boulevard, from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, as people pressed against security barriers for a glimpse of Leo as he arrived in an open-top Popemobile on Saturday (Paris time).
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he → live → Saturday
The vehicle paused frequently as people waved white and yellow Vatican flags and Leo blessed people with disabilities, children and babies passed forward by volunteers.
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Leo → pause → volunteers
Attendees included French first lady Brigitte Macron, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is leading in the polls ahead of next year’s presidential election, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chairman of French luxury group LVMH.
Cheers rang out in the crowd as Leo thanked God in his sermon for the chance to visit France on a whirlwind four-day, three-city tour, during which he is seeking to repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals caused nationwide shock.
The Pope told Catholics that only their faith would provide true happiness.
“Only God can fill the emptiness within us,” said the Pope.
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Pope → include → us
Benoit Dedieu-Anglade, 67, said after the Mass that he had been impressed by the speech.
“We must not give in to the easy path or distractions – and I was moved by how he expressed this in such clear, lucid French,” he said.
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he → say → French
Attendees began assembling before sunrise to hear the pontiff speak at the mid-afternoon Mass.
The Pope, who has forcefully decried the direction of global leadership in recent months, warned in a speech on Friday at the Paris headquarters of the UN culture and education body, UNESCO, that the UN and other multilateral groups were in crisis.
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UN → assemble → crisis
He also repeated his frequent appeal for the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence, telling
French leaders that AI could create a future where “a paradise of machines” takes control of the Earth.
uncertain
paradise → repeat → Earth
He has also frequently spoken out for peace, including in remarks with French leaders at the Elysee on Friday, with his comments criticising the Iran war earlier this year drawing a rebuke from US President Donald Trump.
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comments → speak → Trump
“We live in an era of great materialism,” he said before Leo arrived.
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Leo → live → materialism
“There is a lot of evil around us, so we need a message of hope and love.”
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we → be → hope
France, a secular nation where the separation of church and state is enshrined in a 1905 law, has witnessed a steady decline in affiliation to the Catholic Church since World War II, mirroring a trend in other traditionally Catholic countries.
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separation → enshrine → countries
Although the French Bishops’ Conference points to an increase in baptisms of adults, including a record 21,000 last Easter, a report published by the official statistics agency, INSEE, showed that only 25 per cent of French 18-to-49-year-olds identified as Catholic, compared with 43 per cent a decade earlier.
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cent → point → cent
In a visit on Saturday with newly baptised Catholics at the Catholic University of Paris before the Mass, Leo urged the French church not to be “naively optimistic” about the recent increase in adherents.
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Leo → baptise → adherents
“We must recognise, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid the thorns,” he said.
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he → recognise → thorns
Leo heads later on Saturday to Lourdes, home to a Catholic shrine.
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Leo → head → shrine
He will meet seven French victims of abuse by clergy there on Sunday.
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He → meet → Sunday
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what → get → world
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