France welcomed Pope Leo XIV to Paris on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the Champs-Élysées to see the pontiff travel by popemobile to an outdoor Mass. Waving flags and cheering, the crowds lined a 2-kilometre route from near the Arc de Triomphe towards Place de la Concorde. The Vatican estimated that about 800,000 people attended the Mass, exceeding the 600,000 who had registered in advance.
Leo stopped repeatedly to wave to the crowd and bless children and babies before reaching the ceremony. After the Paris Mass, Leo travelled to Lourdes, where he began his pilgrimage on Saturday evening with a silent prayer at the Grotto of the Apparitions. The site is associated with the visions reported by Bernadette Soubirous, then aged 14, in 1858.
On his first full day in Lourdes, the pope walked barefoot part of the way to the sanctuary, greeting pilgrims and pausing to speak with families who had travelled from across Europe. He spent several minutes in personal prayer inside the basilica before meeting privately with shrine rectors and chaplains. On Sunday, Leo is due to meet French bishops and celebrate another outdoor Mass at the sanctuary.
He is also scheduled to meet sick people and seven survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and personnel, before concluding the visit with a Rosary and torchlight procession.
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