PARIS — Pope Leo XIV told his congregation at an open-air Mass in Paris on Saturday that “none of us is merely a number or an entry in a register but a unique and irreplaceable person” in the eyes of God.

Local authorities estimated the size of the crowd at 800,000, the Vatican said.

Six young men with Down syndrome were among the many altar servers assisting Leo during the celebration Sept. 26.

Numerous families with children sprawled on picnic blankets, babies slept in strollers, and gray-haired women sat in camp chairs as they waited for Mass to start.

Some Catholics described waiting four to five hours to try to catch a glimpse of Leo as he drove nearly two miles down the Avenue of Champs-Élysées in the popemobile on his way from the Arche de Triomphe to the altar at the Place de la Concorde. Priests heard confessions on the sidewalk along the famous avenue.

A young family waits for Pope Leo XIV’s open-air Mass to begin on Sept. 26, 2026, in Paris. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Once the site of one of the guillotines that decapitated more than 1,000 people during the French Revolution, including King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, the square was bathed in sunlight, the thick clouds of the morning having parted only 10 minutes before the start of Mass.

Jean Noizet, his parents, and five siblings ages 9 to 22 were among those who waited hours along the route for the papal Mass, traveling in from a Paris suburb.

The 15-year-old said his family wanted to show their unity with “all the Catholic Church.”

“From this beautiful city of Paris, I pray fervently that the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow throughout France,” Leo said in his homily.

“Seeing you gathered here … heirs to France’s long and beautiful history of faith, I say to you: Drink from the source that is the pierced heart of Jesus,” he said.

“Yes, you thirst for God, for life, for truth, for unity, for peace, for communion, and for happiness. You long to rediscover a horizon filled with light and to build a renewed nation upon roots nourished by faith.”

Pope Leo XIV gives his homily during the open-air Mass on Sept. 26, 2026, in Paris. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Thibault Lecauchois left home at 9 a.m. to travel two hours into the city for the Mass. He and his wife brought their 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son to see Pope Leo.

He told EWTN News the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the pope in Paris was worth the challenges of the journey and waiting hours with two young children.

“We wanted the kids to have the blessing of the pope, and we wanted to share the moment with the rest of the community of Catholics,” he said, noting that his daughter was delighted and shouted “Pape Leon” when she saw him.

With tired kids, he was unsure they would be able to stay for the entire Mass, which started at 3 p.m. local time.

“I think he’s a pope of hope. I think a message of peace is very important nowadays, and Iʼm eager for him to show it to the rest of the world. And I think Paris is a very good place to do so.”

Lourdes

Following the Mass, Pope Leo embarked on the second leg of his trip, flying to Lourdes, at the foot of the Pyrénées in southwest France, where he will spend a day and half in prayer at the shrine where the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world, draws more than 3 million people every year — many in search of miraculous physical healing.

The 136-acre property includes the Grotto of Massabielle, where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous saw 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary starting on Feb. 11, 1858. Today, pilgrims to the sanctuary drink and bathe in the healing water Mary revealed to Bernadette.

On Saturday evening, Leo was scheduled to pray at the grotto of the apparitions.

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV met new and prospective Catholics and their leaders on Saturday as he encouraged the Catholic Church in France to “strike a wise balance” between welcoming new members as they are and educating them in the tenets of the faith.

“It may seem paradoxical that this phenomenon … is taking place against the backdrop of a society like that of France, which is marked by a deeply secularized culture,” the pope said at the Catholic Institute of Paris on Sept. 26.

According to Franceʼs national demographic institute, more than half of French adults report no religious affiliation. While 29% of the population identifies as Catholic, the survey found only 8% say they go to Church regularly.

Despite this, the Catholic Church continues to see record-breaking numbers of baptisms every year. In 2026, France recorded more than 20,000 adult and adolescent baptisms, a 20% increase from the already record-high number in 2025, which saw a 45% increase from 2024 figures.

The pope said people approach the Church for a variety of reasons, from a search for meaning to personal hardship.

The Church must welcome newcomers while helping them embrace the demands of Christian life, he said.

Leo visited the Catholic university hall where the new Provincial Ecclesial Assembly of Île-de-France will hold its three sessions beginning in mid-October.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris said in his welcoming remarks that more than 350 people from eight dioceses of the Province of Paris and the Military Ordinariate will meet for a synodal discussion on “Catechumens and Neophytes: New Perspectives for the Life of Our Church in Our Dioceses.”

Ulrich noted that 45,000 people responded in the assembly’s consultation phase.

“This renewed request for the sacraments of Christian initiation has come as a surprise to us, and we see in it the work of the Lord,” the archbishop said.

Leo said the increase in baptisms should be welcomed as the work of the Holy Spirit.

Calling the sustained growth in conversions “God’s surprising work,” Leo encouraged the Church in Paris to ask where the Holy Spirit is leading them with regard to accompanying new Catholics and seekers.

He told catechumens and newly baptized Catholics that they represented hope for the future of the Church in France.

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New Catholic 22-year-old Loïs Barbichon told EWTN News that he came to faith during the COVID-19 pandemic, “largely through reading.”

“I felt kind of an inner impulse, a desire to be baptized and to learn more.” He was baptized at the Easter Vigil in 2023, and now he accompanies other young people entering the Church.

“Now the goal is to ensure that each newly baptized person finds a mission so that they do not feel abandoned by the community but rather find their place within it,” he said. “Today, I am mainly involved in the Scripture readings at Mass, and I am very happy about that.”

About Pope Leo’s visit to France, Barbichon, who is studying history, heritage, and museum studies, said “it is very important that he be able to speak to young people.”

Sister Christine Kohler will participate in the assembly as a representative of men and women religious in France.

She is superior general of the Little Sisters of the Gospel and lives in the Diocese of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris sometimes described as a “quartier sensibile” (vulnerable neighborhood).

“At Easter, we baptized 20 people during the Easter Vigil in a single parish in the Diocese of Saint-Denis,” she told EWTN News. “I think there were more than 500 in total across the diocese. This is something that raises many questions for us. How is it that adults and teenagers, sometimes 18 years old and sometimes 70, are saying, ‘I would like to become a Christian?’”

Kohler said many newcomers arrive after asking questions about meaning, suffering, and God.

One change the sister has seen in France in the last 15 years is a greater missionary impulse among local Catholics.

“It is no longer simply: ‘I live my faith and I live it within my parish.’ There is now this desire to share it, to become missionary disciples … this desire to bear witness and to say, ‘This is what gives us life.’”

She said she hoped the assembly would help the Church become more welcoming to newcomers.

In her opinion, the pope’s presence Saturday morning may have arisen not only from a desire to encourage the synodal assembly but also to listen and understand more about the “people who are questioning, searching, and wanting to become Christians.”

During the event, a catechumen (baptized but not yet confirmed), a new Catholic, and a director of Christian initiation spoke about their experiences to Pope Leo.

New Catholic Marielle described the challenge of finding one’s place in the community after formally entering the Church. A young man, Jaoide, shared about the winding path he took to get to his baptism last year. He said his journey began when he read both the Quran and the New Testament.

“I was struck by the figure of Jesus,” he said, “above all, by his determination to show us the example through his life and through the trials he endured to the very end.”

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV listened to the stories of faith and hope of two migrants to France at an integration center in the Paris archdiocese on Saturday.

France is one of the European countries with the highest influx of immigrants — a highly divisive political issue that is also tied to next year’s presidential election, with anti-immigration politician Marine Le Pen the current front-runner.

Roughly 8 million immigrants live in France, representing 11.6% of France’s total population in 2025, according to the French national statistics institute.

Leo visited the Bakhita House, a center offering support and integration to immigrants in the Archdiocese of Paris. The pope’s visit falls on the fifth anniversary of the center, which offers educational workshops in sewing, cooking, visual arts, and computer skills.

Named for St. Josephine Bakhita — a child victim of abduction and slavery from Sudan — the day home has welcomed 2,500 people of 84 different nationalities since opening its doors in late September 2021. It is run by five permanent staff members and 100 volunteers.

“The name of your center … which refers to St. Bakhita, inspires us to recognize the fundamental role of women in building a civilization of love, which is an alternative to a culture that tears communities apart and leaves cities sick with loneliness,” the pope said Sept. 26.

The pope heard from a 31-year-old Nigerian woman named Blessing, who described the way her life has changed since receiving the help and friendship of the association Aux Captifs, la Libération, a Catholic charitable organization that helps the homeless and people in situations of prostitution.

Blessing described a complicated life in which she “was forced to do things I did not want to do.” But through the assistance she received, she left that life behind and began to work in a restaurant.

“God has an important place in my life. Without God, nothing is possible,” she said. “Even through the difficulties I have experienced, I never doubted his presence, and I knew that one day he would open a new path for me. Sometimes I wish God could erase everything like a magician, but I know that he will do everything in his own time.”

The pope also heard from 35-year-old Meysam, a refugee from Afghanistan. Through Bakhita House, he was able to improve his French and his sewing skills. He is now a volunteer with the house: “I go on two street outreaches each week to meet undocumented exiles and refugees. It is a way of giving back what I myself received.”

Pope Leo thanked everyone who works at the center, “as well as all those throughout France who carry out this service in similar institutions.”

“Continue to bear witness to that care for one another which, through fraternal welcome, programs of formation, and dialogue with the city, elevates the spirit and makes the world more humane,” he said.

“May St. Bakhita, together with the great witnesses of charity who have shaped the presence of the Church in France, especially during periods of tumultuous change, intercede on your behalf.”

SAINT-DENIS, France — At least 80,000 young Catholics flocked to France’s national soccer stadium north of Paris on Friday night to pray with Pope Leo XIV and to hear his message for the Church.

Whether they were lifting their arms in praise-and-worship or silently venerating the relics of saints and the Holy Tunic of Christ, the entire Stade de France was united in prayer before Leo’s arrival and throughout an hour and a half-long program.

People from working-class suburbs stood alongside families from the more traditional Catholic milieu associated with the city of Versailles. In the lines outside the stadium, Breton and Vendéan flags — from regions with strong Catholic histories — stood alongside groups with a more popular, charismatic style.

One young woman, 29-year-old Romance Bono, wiped tears from her eyes as the pope entered the stadium to deafening cheers.

“It brought tears to my eyes because it’s such an emotional moment,” she told EWTN News. “Seeing all these young people cheering for the pope like a rock star, that is the strength of the Church, and it is the future of the Church here. It was very moving.”

Young people greet Pope Leo XIV at a prayer vigil at Stade de France on Sept. 25, 2026 in Saint-Denis, France. | Credit: Vatican Media

Soon after Pope Leoʼs arrival at the stadium, hundreds of young French Catholics staged an artistic performance depicting French saints and the history of the Church in France, including the use of live horses, and culminating in fireworks launched above the stadium.

One 28-year-old volunteer, Jacques-Henri de Livron, told EWTN News that as soon as he heard the pope was coming to France, he decided to take a day off work to see him. He was so afraid of missing the events that he volunteered to make sure he could be in attendance. De Livron grew up in a Catholic environment, but returned to the faith in his twenties after painful deaths among his siblings and close friends. Those experiences, he said, made him recognize its value anew.

“Christianity is really the religion of the human person,” he said. “In this age of narcissism, it helps us get out of ourselves, turn toward others and care about them instead of thinking only about ourselves. People often call it a religion of the book, or a religion of revelation. But it’s much more than that. It’s the religion of the human person.”

De Livron also made a point of sharing his surname, which is unusual in France, where anticlerical culture is widespread and religious people usually ask to be identified in press reports only by their first names in order to avoid trouble at work. “I want to be part of a generation that stops being afraid to testify, that gives its name, and isn’t afraid of anything,” he said.

Pierre-Alain Belaube, 34, described the effort to arrive hours early after a long day at work, and to fight the crowds to enter into the packed stadium, as “200% worth it. It’s a privilege to be here.”

Belaube described himself as a formerly lukewarm Catholic, whose life was transformed when he read the autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

“I have the hope that many more young people will open their hearts to God and let him change their life,” he said. “I think that such an event can be, for many, the first milestone of a life-changing experience. I hope we will inspire many more young people to get to know Jesus.”

Thibault, a religious brother who preferred not to give his last name because he did not have permission from his superiors to speak with reporters, accompanied 400 members from the youth movement of his religious community, the Missionaries of Divine Mercy, to the event.

He told EWTN News that it is very moving to be surrounded by young people “wanting to say, ‘Here I am, I’m Catholic and I’m proud to show it.’”

The young religious, who is also studying for the priesthood, said he hopes Leo’s visit to France “will contribute to the missionary awakening that needs to happen in France.”

While the primarily secular country is seeing a surprising surge in baptisms, he said he thinks “Catholics still find it difficult to go out and meet people, to be missionaries in their daily lives.”

“I think this could become a significant moment in the life of the Church in France.”

In his message during the prayer, which included religious hymns and a Litany of Saints, Leo invited young people to shun evil and strive for good.

“God is the Lord of history, and no matter what happens, he guides its course toward salvation. In Christ, every evil comes to an end, precisely because that end becomes the beginning of a new and eternal life,” he said.

“The work well done, the work that is good, is the redemption that Jesus accomplishes for us,” Leo said. “Through his struggle against sin and death, Christ’s victory sets us free. He saves us from all evil and invites us to all that is good.”

The pontiff also answered the questions of two young French people as part of the evening’s program.

Chloé, 25, talked about her involvement in her parish and in a group of young Catholics “eager to live out and share their faith with others.” But she lamented that society “is founded on different principles” and sometimes has “no regard for the question of God.”

Pope Leo responded that, “It is true, as you say, that the society in which we live seems indifferent to God. But the Lord is not indifferent to us! This is what matters, and what always gives us hope.”

Chloé, who is from Saint-Denis, described the vitality of Catholic life there. Saint-Denis is often described as a quartier sensible (“a vulnerable neighborhood”). Her testimony echoed what EWTN News heard from local Catholics in the crowd, including people from immigrant backgrounds, about the life of the Church in their neighborhoods that have a strong Muslim presence.

A young man from Burgundy, named François, also addressed the pope and asked him how young people can discern how the Lord is calling them to serve.

Leo’s advice to young people was to keep their hearts open to the suffering of their peers, to follow Jesus, and to draw inspiration from the examples of the saints.

“Even in the face of persecution, these brothers and sisters of ours opened paths of peace. Look to those priests who were passionate about Christ, such as St. Eugene de Mazenod and St. John Mary Vianney. Look to the mystical beauty of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus; the fervor in charity and mission of Blessed Pauline Jaricot; and the courage of the 50 martyrs of the apostolate who served their brothers and sisters even to the point of sacrificing their own lives during the Second World War,” he said.

“These saints changed the course of history by leading many people from hardship to hope, since they first changed their own hearts, transforming them in the light of faith.”

The youth vigil was the pope’s last event on a packed first day in France. The Sept. 25-28 journey will also take him to Lourdes and Metz.

Pope Leo XIV is visiting three cities in France from Sept. 25–28, making stops in Paris, Lourdes, and Metz to meet with young people, government officials, the sick, and migrants, among others.

On Sept. 25, he celebrated Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, becoming the first pope to visit the church since it was rebuilt after the devastating 2019 fire.

Paris gives Pope Leo XIV a joyful welcome as thousands lined the streets for his first popemobile ride through the French capital on Sept. 25, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media Crowds assemble outside the restored Notre-Dame Cathedral for Pope Leo XIVʼs visit on Sept. 25, 2026, seven years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed the cathedral.| Credit: Vatican Media Thousands gathered outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sept. 25, 2026 to pray the Salve Regina with Pope Leo XIV before the statue of Our Lady and the Infant Jesus. Commissioned in the early 19th century and crafted by goldsmith Charles-Nicolas Odiot, the statue survived being thrown from the archbishopʼs palace during the riots of 1831 and later narrowly escaped being melted down. | Credit: Vatican Media Upon entering the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the pope visits a chapel to pray before the Blessed Sacrament on Sept. 25, 2026, and then venerated a relic of the Crown of Thorns. | Credit: Vatican Media Seven years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral, Pope Leo XIV enters the restored cathedral Sept. 25, 2026 and celebrates Vespers in the first papal visit since the 2019 blaze.| Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News Worshipers pray at Notre-Dame Cathedral where Pope Leo XIV visited Sept. 25, 2026 to celebrate Vespers in the first papal visit since the 2019 blaze.| Credit: Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV delivers a homily during a celebration of Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sept. 25, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV visits Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sept. 25, 2026 for a celebration of Vespers. | Credit: Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV greets sisters in Notre-Dame Cathedral on Sept. 25, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV waves at thousands of people gathered outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sept. 25, 2026 to pray the Salve Regina. | Credit: Vatican Media

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV prayed Evening Prayer at Notre-Dame Cathedral on Friday, becoming the first pope to set foot in the monumental church since it was rebuilt after the 2019 fire that ravaged its roof, nave, and spire.

Less than two years after its reopening, Leo reflected on the iconic cathedral, which, “more than any other [place], has invited the people of Paris for centuries to lift their eyes towards heaven.”

“Seven years have passed since the whole world, holding its breath, watched as the cathedral was engulfed in a terrible fire,” he said in his homily. “That pain was felt not only by Catholics, nor only by believers.”

“In that tragic moment we came to realize that Notre-Dame is more than a monument,” the pope said. “The collective effort to rebuild it, and the splendor of the result reveal that the heart of a people beats here, and that here we stand at the living center of a civilization, where past and future embrace, where heaven and earth meet.”

Seven years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral, Pope Leo XIV enters the restored cathedral Sept. 25, 2026 and celebrates Vespers in the first papal visit since the 2019 blaze.| Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

The prayer service at the famous Gothic cathedral was Pope Leo’s first meeting with the Catholic Church of Paris during his Sept. 25-28 visit to France.

Here Leo spoke to the country’s Catholic clergy and religious — the rebuilt church providing a fitting setting for his message that “this Cathedral has been reborn so that you too may be reborn with it in a new impetus towards holiness and daily mission.”

Leo addresses France’s Catholics at a critical juncture in their history, as they welcome rising numbers of converts. This Easter, France recorded more than 20,000 adult and adolescent baptisms, a 20% increase from the already record-high number in 2025, which saw a 45% increase from 2024 figures.

Despite the encouraging trend, the country continues to grow more secular. The latest data on religious identity in France, in 2019-2020, found that 51% of adults in France say they have no religious affiliation, an 8% increase from a decade before. While 29% of the population identifies as Catholic, the survey found only 8% say they go to Church regularly, according to the Institut National D’Etudes Démographiques.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France | Credit: Mistervlad/Shutterstock

Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened in December 2024, a little over five years after people around the world watched the church’s blaze in horror. Restoration work of the Gothic cathedral continued into 2026.

In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the symbolism of the architecture of the cathedral, the seat of the archbishop of Paris.

“The Cathedral’s cruciform layout, where stone and light come together, evokes the meeting of earth and heaven. It gathers and orders the events of history, woven with human joys and sufferings. It holds them together in a symbolic dynamic that transforms these diverse expressions into a living language, uniting them into a whole,” he said.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, prepares to welcome Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 25, 2026. | Credit: Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi/EWTN News

Before Evening Prayer, Pope Leo approached the cathedral on foot to greet those gathered outside.

Mariana González, 31, was one of hundreds of people who caught a glimpse of Pope Leo as he arrived for Evening Prayer.

González, who with her husband and 7-month-old girl waited around four hours to see the pope, told EWTN News that “it’s very special for [Pope Leo] to be here, not only to see him but to listen to the message he has for all the French people, those of us living in France and the whole world.” González, who is Colombian-American and lives in Paris, said she believed “his visit will also touch many hearts here and I look forward to seeing all of the fruits his visit will bring.”

Local authorities estimated that 300,000 people lined up to greet Leo outside Notre-Dame and along the two-and-a-half mile road from his previous event at UNESCO headquarters to the cathedral, the Vatican said.

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Upon entering the cathedral, the pope visited a chapel to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and then venerated a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The cathedral, which just moments before had erupted into applause and cries of “Pape Léon,” was silent.

After putting on vestments for the prayer, Leo approached the altar to the dramatic tones of the cathedral’s grand organ, the largest pipe organ in France.

“We must not forget that this Cathedral, like every other church, was built for the purpose of prayer and the worship of God,” the pope recalled in his homily. “This Cathedral is not merely a stone structure to be admired; instead, it lives by the sacred mystery celebrated within it. Without the liturgy, it would lose its soul.”

He encouraged priests and consecrated men and women to never neglect their friendship with Christ, to nurture their interior lives and spend time in personal, silent prayer.

“Your mission flows above all from this intimate relationship with the Lord, who awaits you there,” he said.

Reflecting on the cathedral’s purpose of prayer and the worship of God, Leo said, “Today, more than ever, we live in an age that seems deprived of fullness, depth and promise. The noble simplicity of song, spoken word and liturgical gesture can be for many a glimmer of hope, an oasis of peace in a hyper-connected and noisy society, where we can experience the presence of the Author of the greatest love.”

In his message of welcome to Leo, Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich said, “Just over a year ago, when I took the liberty of inviting you to Paris, you told me that you wanted to see Notre-Dame! … You have come as a pilgrim among all these visitors.”

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence has fostered a “corruption of culture” that could affect what it means to be human during a speech at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday.

The pontiff visited the headquarters of UNESCO — a specialized U.N. agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights — on the first day of a Sept. 25–28 journey to France.

“A fundamental question deserves to be explored, one that urgently calls for a response: What does it mean to be human?” Leo said in a speech delivered half in French and half in English.

“Every culture is challenged by this question, which lies at the heart of every form of knowledge, every art, and every religion. Even in the 21st century, after all, we cannot take for granted that we know who the human person is or what it means to live as a human being,” the pontiff said.

He contrasted the domination and confusion of the Tower of Babel, to which he has previously likened AI, with the peace and unity found at Pentecost.

“The corruption of culture which we are considering finds its redemption in the public square of Pentecost,” he said. “There, a message of peace is received as good news by people of every nation. This message proclaims the resurrection of Jesus, that is, the victory of life over death and the salvation that gives hope to the world.”

Leo also spoke about the development of communications and the risk of spreading false information, and “words devoid of meaning,” thereby “hindering dialogue rather than fostering it.”

“Artificial intelligence amplifies this problem,” he continued. “Although such systems can correlate data, they cannot answer questions that concern the meaning of human life, which is rooted in lived experience.”

He condemned oppressive power, pride, injustice, and conflict.

“Science itself, when reduced to a technique of power, no longer serves to elevate the human person but instead risks degrading the fruits of human endeavor,” he said.

The pontiff devoted significant portions of his speech to underlining the care due to every human life, especially the most vulnerable, such as “children in their mothers’ wombs and in the various theaters of war, persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and all those arrogantly excluded as unproductive.”

They are the true test of our claims to respect human dignity, and their protection and promotion extend also to creation,” he said.

On technological advancements, the Holy Father said, “the paradox has become increasingly evident: While ‘intelligence’ is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognize the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded.”

Pope Leo’s arrival at UNESCO was met by a warm applause from the audience.

Before his address, the pope was given a brief tour of the headquarters, including the library, which houses UNESCO’s diplomatic archives. Leo also received a loud applause when he watered an olive tree as a sign of nurturing peace.

He was also given a copy of the Book of Peace Memorandum, an archival document submitted to the fourth session of the UNESCO General Conference in 1949 to support its mission to prevent global conflicts after World War II.

Leo underlined that he was visiting UNESCO “as a pastor, to speak to you on behalf of the Church, which continually seeks to enter into dialogue and has a message to share with every people, with all women and men of goodwill,” and praised the agency’s mission to build a just world and favor authentic human development

Citing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he said the Holy See looks “upon this Organization as a privileged partner in the service of the common good, which is the ‘social expression of the dignity’ shared by all of us from the very beginning and in equal measure.”

The pope emphasized the importance of truth, without which language becomes subject to violence and power, and noted that “corruption of the law begins with the corruption of the heart.”

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV warned that Artificial Intelligence has fostered a “corruption of culture” that could affect what it means to be human, during a speech at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday.

The pontiff visited the headquarters of UNESCO — a specialized UN agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights — on the first day of a Sept. 25-28 journey to France.

“A fundamental question deserves to be explored, one that urgently calls for a response: What does it mean to be human?” Leo said in a speech delivered half in French and half in English.

“Every culture is challenged by this question, which lies at the heart of every form of knowledge, every art and every religion. Even in the twenty-first century, after all, we cannot take for granted that we know who the human person is or what it means to live as a human being,” the pontiff said.

He contrasted the domination and confusion of the Tower of Babel, to which he has previously likened AI, with the peace and unity found at Pentecost.

“The corruption of culture which we are considering finds its redemption in the public square of Pentecost,” he said. “There, a message of peace is received as good news by people of every nation. This message proclaims the resurrection of Jesus, that is, the victory of life over death and the salvation that gives hope to the world.”

Leo also spoke about the development of communications and the risk of spreading false information, and “words devoid of meaning,” thereby “hindering dialogue rather than fostering it.”

“Artificial intelligence amplifies this problem,” he continued. “Although such systems can correlate data, they cannot answer questions that concern the meaning of human life, which is rooted in lived experience.”

He condemned oppressive power, pride, injustice, and conflict.

“Science itself, when reduced to a technique of power, no longer serves to elevate the human person, but instead risks degrading the fruits of human endeavor,” he said.

The pontiff devoted significant portions of his speech to underlining the care due to every human life, especially the most vulnerable, such as “children in their mothers’ wombs and in the various theaters of war, persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and all those arrogantly excluded as unproductive.”

They are the true test of our claims to respect human dignity, and their protection and promotion extend also to creation,” he said.

On technological advancements, the Holy Father said, “the paradox has become increasingly evident: while ‘intelligence’ is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognize the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded.”

Pope Leo’s arrival at UNESCO was met by a warm applause from the audience.

Before his address, the pope was given a brief tour of the headquarters, including the library, which houses UNESCO’s diplomatic archives. Leo also received a loud applause when he watered an olive tree as a sign of nurturing peace.

He was also given a copy of the Book of Peace Memorandum, an archival document submitted to the 4th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 1949 to support its mission to prevent global conflicts after World War II.

Leo underlined that he was visiting UNESCO, “as a pastor, to speak to you on behalf of the Church, which continually seeks to enter into dialogue and has a message to share with every people, with all women and men of good will,” and praised the agency’s mission to build a just world and favor authentic human development

Citing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he said the Holy See looks “upon this Organization as a privileged partner in the service of the common good, which is the ‘social expression of the dignity’ shared by all of us from the very beginning and in equal measure.”

The pope emphasized the importance of truth, without which language becomes subject to violence and power, and noted that “corruption of the law begins with the corruption of the heart.”

PARIS – Pope Leo XIV, in his first speech during a four-day visit to France, lamented the use of science and technology for profit instead of moral and ethical human progress and said that everyone is responsible for the protection of life.

Addressing French President Emmanuel Macron and other government members at the Élysée Palace, the head of state’s official residence, on Sept. 25, the pontiff said he was concerned “by those trends in society that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death.”

“Let us not forget that mutual respect and the protection of every human life is a duty incumbent upon each and every one of us,” he said.

End-of-life questions are among the most sensitive issues the pope is expected to address while in France Sept. 25-28. France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It differs from assisted dying, in which the patient takes life-ending drugs himself, under a physician’s guidance. Both practices are prohibited by Catholic teaching.

The duty to protect and respect life, Leo continued, is “an expression of the authentic ‘secularity’ (laïcité) of the earthly city” since a “Christian engaged in public service and guided by the light of his or her conscience illumined by faith, cannot be considered a proselytizer or a threat to the unity of the nation.”

Laïcité is a legal principle strictly separating Church and state in France.

Leo urged the country’s political, civil and cultural leaders, as well as French and foreign diplomats, to see that “an authentic secularity” does not exclude religion but values it as an educational resource.

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Leo echoed a 2018 speech by Macron, in which the president told the French bishops that “a Church that claims to be uninterested in temporal matters would not be fulfilling her vocation; and that a President of the Republic who claims to be uninterested in the Church and in Catholics would be failing in his duty.”

“An authentic secularity, then, consists not in excluding religion from the public sphere or from education, but in striving to ensure that the State and religious institutions maintain dialogue and join forces in the service of the common good, that the world may have life,” the pope said.

Speaking before the pope, Macron said that “it is precisely because France is a homeland of freedom and intellect that it is diverse. It is a nation that nurtures a particular passion for constant debate. One must understand it in this way in order truly to love it.” The two leaders met privately for 50 minutes before delivering their speeches.

Leo noted France’s “deep Christian roots” but also praised the French national motto of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” as a set of “ethical imperatives” and guides to follow as technology — including artificial intelligence — advances.

He cited the French Catholic author Georges Bernanos, who “saw the threat that blind obedience and irresponsibility could lead to a ‘Paradise of Machines,’ and pointed out that French civilization had instead sought for centuries to form free men and women who are fully responsible for their actions.”

The pope, who earlier in the day told reporters accompanying him on the flight from Rome that he was traveling to France “as a follower of Jesus Christ who wants to bring peace of Christ throughout the world,” called in his speech for a ban on nuclear weapons and lamented war in the Middle East.

Also present for the pope’s address were firemen who responded to the 2019 fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral and artisans and architects who worked on the landmark’s subsequent restoration. The pope celebrated that undertaking, which he said “showed that something considered irreparably destroyed can be reborn through mutual cooperation.”

Pope Leo XIV landed in Paris on Friday for a four-day visit to France that began with a packed first day with stops at UNESCO headquarters, Notre-Dame, and the French national stadium for a prayer vigil with 80,000 young people. Leo is the first pope to visit Paris since Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Curious Parisians stopped what they were doing to watch the pope pass by in a car on his way from the airport to the center of Paris.

After a break for lunch, the Holy Father will visit the headquarters of UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — a specialized UN agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights.

His journey will also bring him to the towns of Lourdes and Metz, before returning to Rome Sept. 28.

PARIS — Pope Leo XIV arrived in France on Friday for a four-day visit to the country that begins with a packed first day, with stops at UNESCO headquarters, Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the national stadium for a prayer vigil with 80,000 young people. Leo is the first pope to visit Paris since Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Leo was welcomed at Paris Orly Airport by President Emmanuel Macron. Two local children presented flowers as the pontiff was given military honors — a formal ceremonial tribute — before entering a room of the airport with the French president for a private conversation.

During the flight from Rome, the pope told reporters that he would address “a number of very important topics” during his visit. “I above all am traveling to France, as anywhere else in the world, as a follower of Jesus Christ who wants to bring peace of Christ throughout the world,” he said.

The pope’s first stop in the French capital will be the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president, an 18th-century mansion surrounded by elaborate landscaped gardens.

There, Leo will again have time to speak with Macron, before delivering the first official speech of the trip, addressed to political authorities and members of civil society, the business world, and the diplomatic corps.

Among the most sensitive issues that the pope is expected to address are end-of-life questions. France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain.

After a break for lunch, the Holy Father will visit the headquarters of UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — a specialized UN agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights.

Pope Leo XIV is visiting France from Sept. 25–28. Follow here for live updates of his trip.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV and Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar discussed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the impact of artificial intelligence, and other challenges facing Europe during a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday.

Magyar also formally invited the pope to visit Hungary and presented him with a book of memoirs by Cardinal József Mindszenty, the former archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary who resisted both fascism and communism.

Following the audience, Magyar, who won Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary elections, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16 consecutive years in power, described the meeting on social media as “an honor” and “inspiring.”

Magyar said the two spoke about the situation in Hungary, challenges facing Europe, the growing impact of artificial intelligence on society, and loneliness among young people.

He also explained his approach to politics, which he said is based on “honesty, genuine human connection, and hard work.”

“At the end of our meeting, I asked for a papal blessing for our country and invited the Holy Father to visit Hungary,” Magyar said.

The Vatican said the discussions covered Hungary’s socioeconomic situation as well as education and “the protection of the most vulnerable Christian communities in various regions of the world.”

The two sides also exchanged views on Ukraine and the Middle East and expressed hope for greater international efforts to promote peace and negotiated solutions to ongoing conflicts.

Magyar gave the pope a book of memoirs by Mindszenty, one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Hungarian Catholicism. The cardinal, who lived from 1892 to 1975, faced imprisonment and persecution for his opposition to both fascism and Hungary’s communist regime.

Portuguese president meets Pope Leo

Pope Leo also received Portuguese President António José Seguro on Thursday in their first official meeting since Seguro became head of state.

Pope Leo XIV with Portuguese President António José Seguro at the Vatican on Sept. 24, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media

Seguro subsequently met with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

The Holy See said the talks covered Portugal’s socioeconomic situation, the promotion of the common good, and international affairs.

“Some regional and international issues were addressed, with particular reference to the repercussions of conflicts around the world, migration, the importance of multilateralism and respect for international law, as well as the urgent need for a constant commitment to peace,” the Vatican said.

The private audience lasted about 40 minutes. Seguro presented the pope with a porcelain sculpture of the crucified Christ made by Portuguese manufacturer Vista Alegre and designed by architect Álvaro Siza Vieira.

Seguro had said Wednesday that he planned to convey “the friendship of the Portuguese people” and renew an invitation for Pope Leo to visit Portugal in 2027, when the country will mark the 500th anniversary of the apostolic nunciature.

Pope Francis visited Portugal twice during his pontificate: in 2017 for the centenary of the Marian apparitions at Fátima and in 2023 for World Youth Day in Lisbon.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV called for a shift in how the world confronts climate change during a Sept. 24 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

“We cannot respond to these challenges only after disaster has already struck,” he said. “We need to move from emergency response to prevention, from vulnerability to preparedness, and from short-term measures to a wise and farsighted vision for humanity.”

Speaking at the academy’s plenary session on “The Future of Science in a Changing World,” Leo pointed to increasingly frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires. He said their effects “fall most heavily upon the poor” and on communities with the fewest resources to adapt.

“It follows that the climate question is not merely an environmental challenge, it is fundamentally a question of justice, human dignity, and solidarity between peoples and generations,” he said.

The pope called for scientists, engineers, economists, physicians, and social scientists to work alongside local communities and policymakers. He welcomed the climate resilience summits the academy has held over the past two years and encouraged it to continue that work.

Leo also addressed digitalization, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Citing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he said those technologies could bring advances in medicine, food, and energy systems while warning that AI can be used for “surveillance, manipulation, and discrimination.”

He raised concerns about cyber capabilities and autonomous weapons developed or deployed without adequate safeguards and human oversight. Technology, he said, carries responsibilities that extend beyond its technical uses.

“It is my prayer that you will foster a scientific culture that is ambitious yet humble, rigorous yet open to dialogue, innovative yet responsible, globally cooperative yet inclusive of those most at risk and most in need,” he told the academy.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Romanian diplomat Monsignor Paul Butnaru as the new permanent observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe.

The Vatican announced Butnaru’s appointment on Sept. 24. The Council of Europe, distinct from the European Union, is Europe’s leading human rights organization. Founded in 1949 after World War II, the Council of Europe upholds democracy, human rights, and the rule of law across continental Europe. Its headquarters is in Strasbourg, France.

The Holy See is not a full member of the council, which is limited to democratic states. Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the council have existed since 1970, and Pope Francis visited the council in Strasbourg in 2014, where he called for a more humane response to migrants.

Francis’ plea to Europe to stop migrant deaths

Criticizing the number of deaths resulting from the mass drownings of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Southern Europe, Francis warned the council in his address not to betray their mission by ignoring the suffering of these migrants.

Pope Francis addresses the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on Nov. 25, 2014. | Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA

“We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery! The boats landing daily on the shores of Europe are filled with men and women who need acceptance and assistance,” Francis said.

Pope Leo XIV echoed similar concerns during his apostolic journey to Spain in June 2026, calling for an “examination of conscience” regarding migrant deaths during his visit to the port in the Canary Islands.

Butnaru’s diplomatic service

Butnaru was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, on Nov. 13, 1978. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Iași on June 29, 2004.

He entered the Vatican’s diplomatic service on July 1, 2012. Since then, he has served at the apostolic nunciatures in Ethiopia, Venezuela, and Bulgaria; at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, in the section for relations with states and international organizations; and at the apostolic nunciature in Canada.

Butnaru is the second permanent observer to the Council of Europe who is not a bishop, following his predecessor, Monsignor Marco Ganci.

Pope Leo XIV will visit three cities in France from Sept. 25–28, making stops in Paris, Lourdes, and Metz to meet with young people, government officials, the sick, and migrants, among others. During the trip, the Holy Father will be discussing issues ranging from artificial intelligence to immigration to the Catholic Church in France today.

Here are 12 things to know about his trip and France’s rich Catholic history:

1. Pope Leo will be the third pope to visit Paris and Lourdes.

Pope Francis made three visits to French cities including Strasbourg, Marseille, and Ajaccio in Corsica but never visited Paris or Lourdes. Pope Leo will now become the third reigning pope, after St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to visit both of the iconic Catholic destinations of Paris and Lourdes.

Pope Benedict XVI made the longest visit to Lourdes by a reigning pope, spending four days there in September 2008 for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.

2. The first papal liturgy at Notre-Dame will be celebrated since the devastating fire.

On Sept. 25, Pope Leo will open his apostolic journey to France by presiding over solemn vespers alongside clergy, consecrated religious, and seminarians inside Notre-Dame de Paris.

Seven years after the tragic 2019 fire brought down the cathedral’s spire and roof, this evening prayer marks the very first papal liturgy beneath its restored Gothic vaults.

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. | Credit: Mistervlad/Shutterstock 3. Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Mass at Paris’ Place de la Concorde.

Built as Place Louis XV to honor a king, it became Place de la Révolution during the French Revolution — where Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and more than a thousand others were executed. It was renamed Place de la Concorde, “Square of Harmony,” in 1795 as a gesture toward national reconciliation.

Place de la Concorde is the largest public square in Paris, spanning over 20 acres.

4. A relic of Christ’s tunic will be on display for an event during the pope’s trip.

The pope will take part in a youth prayer vigil at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on Sept. 25. More than 80,000 French young people have registered for the event.

At the conclusion of the event, a relic of Christ’s tunic will be on display. This will be the first time a pope will witness an exposition of the Holy Tunic, the garment believed to have been worn by Christ during his passion, which is preserved in the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

The special relic is put on display during regular expositions every 50 years, as well as on extraordinary occasions — the most recent being in 2023 — but it has never before been brought before a pope.

The relic will travel under tight security from the basilica to the stadium, which is about 3.7 miles away.

The Stade de France has its own interesting history in that it was built specifically to host the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final — where France famously defeated Brazil 3–0 to claim its first world title. The 80,000-seat stadium is set to trade soccer anthems for sacred hymns as it will now welcome that exact same full-capacity crowd, transforming the historic pitch from the birthplace of French football glory into an altar filled with 80,000 young pilgrims holding candles and praying alongside the pope.

5. Pope Leo will pray at the exact grotto where Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette.

The Holy Father’s first Lourdes event on Sept. 26 is an evening prayer at the Grotto of the Apparitions at Massabielle — one of the most recognizable Marian apparition locations on Earth.

Also while in Lourdes, the pope will lead the rosary and Marian torchlight procession at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sept. 27.

Sunday’s Mass will be celebrated by the pope at the shrine’s meadow — the prairie — rather than inside a basilica. The prairie at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is a wide, open grassy meadow located across the Gave River from the main Grotto.

In a deeply Lourdes-specific moment, the Holy Father will visit the staff and sick community of the Accueil Notre-Dame, one of the sanctuary’s hospitality facilities for pilgrims who are ill or disabled.

Since 14-year-old St. Bernadette saw Our Lady in 1858, over 200 million pilgrims have visited the grotto of Massabielle. Out of more than 7,000 claimed medical cures, 72 have been officially recognized by the Church and a rigorous medical bureau as scientifically inexplicable miracles.

6. French pilgrims wonʼt need translations when Pope Leo XIV takes the podium.

The Holy Father speaks French with ease. Drawing on paternal French ancestry, early immersion that saw him tutoring high school classmates in Michigan by age 15, and years delivering addresses across Francophone Africa during his tenure as Augustinian prior general, the Chicago-born pontiff brings a lifelong linguistic fluency and a deep love for French spirituality directly to his encounters in France.

7. France is the birthplace of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is a beloved French Discalced Carmelite nun who is also known as the “Little Flower.” She died at just 24 years old and was proclaimed a doctor of the Church by St. John Paul II in 1997.

Pope Leo will make a private visit to cloistered Carmelite nuns at their monastery in Lourdes during his visit.

8. France holds the title “Eldest Daughter of the Church.”

France earned the title “la fille aînée de lʼÉglise” (“eldest daughter of the Church”) because King Clovis I of the Franks was baptized in Reims around A.D. 496, making the Kingdom of the Franks the first major Western kingdom to adopt orthodox Catholicism rather than paganism or Arianism.

9. The popes lived in France for nearly 70 years.

During the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377), seven successive popes — all French — ruled the universal Catholic Church from the Palais des Papes in southern France rather than Rome, until St. Catherine of Siena helped convince Pope Gregory XI to return to the Eternal City.

10. The Miraculous Medal was revealed in the heart of Paris.

In 1830, the Virgin Mary appeared to novice sister St. Catherine Labouré at the chapel on the Rue du Bac in Paris, giving her the design for the Miraculous Medal. Millions were distributed within years, and the medal remains one of the most widely worn sacramentals in the global Church.

11. Only two French monks know the secret recipe for Chartreuse.

The famous herbal liqueur Chartreuse has been crafted since 1737 by Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble. To this day, only three monks at any given time know the secret recipe of 130 herbs, plants, and flowers.

12. Dom Pérignon champagne was perfected by a Benedictine monk.

Dom Pierre Pérignon, a 17th-century French Benedictine monk and cellarer at the Abbey of Hautvillers, revolutionized winemaking by developing thick-glass bottles, cork stoppers, and blending methods that prevented bottles from exploding — laying the foundation for modern champagne.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is set to become the first U.S.-born bishop to be beatified on Sept. 24 in St. Louis. Known for his innovative Catholic media ministry, Sheen spent several years after his ordination studying philosophy and theology in Europe — first in Leuven, Belgium, then in Paris and Rome.

His time in Rome would produce some of the most significant events in Sheen’s life, including the completion of his doctorate, being consecrated a bishop, and attending the Second Vatican Council.

Here are some of Sheen’s most important moments in the Eternal City:

Completing his doctorate at the Angelicum

Then-Father Sheen earned a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — “the Angelicum,” as it’s known — in Rome after studying there from 1923-1924. That year, the Angelicum was located on the Via San Vitale before moving to its present location at the Church of Sts. Dominic and Sixtus in 1932.

The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — “the Angelicum” — in Rome. | Credit: Ishmael Adibuah/EWTN News

In 1923, Pope Pius XI published his encyclical Studiorum Decem, praising the Angelicum’s work in promoting the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose 600th canonization anniversary was also celebrated that year.

Meeting with Pope Pius XI

In 1935, Pius XI summoned Sheen to Rome for a private audience at the height of Sheen’s fame from his NBC radio show “The Catholic Hour.” The pope had made him a monsignor the previous year.

A young Fulton Sheen. | Credit: Photo courtesy of The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation

During their meeting, the pope, alarmed by the rise of Soviet communism, asked Sheen to study the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin and to use that study to warn Americans of the dangers of communism.

Sheen would respond to the pope’s request by regularly explaining the dangers of communism throughout his public ministry.

Episcopal consecration

On May 28, 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Sheen auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, assisting its archbishop, Cardinal Francis Spellman. He received his episcopal consecration at the Basilica of Sts. John and Paul on June 11, 1951.

Sheen later became the bishop of Rochester, New York, in 1966 and the titular archbishop of Newport, Wales, in 1969.

National director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith

In 1950, the Vatican nominated Sheen as the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He would serve in this position for 16 years.

Pope Pius XII. | Credit: Public domain

As national director, he was occasionally required to visit Rome, where he met privately with Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI, as well as other officials in the Roman Curia.

On May 21, 1961, John XXIII invited Sheen, as national director, to consecrate 14 new missionary bishops with him in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Second Vatican Council

Sheen attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, which lasted from 1962–1965.

Father Joseph Ratzinger, a theological expert at the council who later became Pope Benedict XVI, met Sheen in 1965. In July 2012, as pope, he fondly recalled the days he spent working with Sheen and others in the Italian countryside, drafting the council’s decree on the Church’s missionary activity, Ad Gentes.

Pope Benedict XVI. | Credit: Vatican Media

“There was Fulton Sheen who would fascinate us in the evenings with his talks,” Benedict said, remembering some of those present during a week that was, for him, “spiritual enrichment, a great gift.”

Shortly before that, Benedict recognized the heroic virtue of Sheen and declared him “venerable” in a decree on June 28, 2012.

Pope Leo XIV appealed on Wednesday to “everyone’s sense of responsibility” to protect migrant and refugee minors, stressing that children and teenagers are the most vulnerable and often endure “unspeakable suffering.”

“Children and teenagers are the most vulnerable,” he said at the end of his weekly general audience, recalling that the World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be celebrated on Sunday, Sept. 27.

Following his catechesis in St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff noted that many minors endure “unspeakable suffering: violence, torture, exploitation, traumatic conditions, and it is not uncommon for them to lose their lives along migration routes.”

In light of this reality, he called for ensuring the protection and support of young migrants.

“I appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility: Let us all feel a sense of involvement in the lives of these young people, who must always be protected and supported,” Leo XIV urged.

The Church celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees each year to raise awareness about the situation of displaced persons and to promote initiatives of welcome, integration, and accompaniment, with particular attention to those in the most vulnerable circumstances.

In his message for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, titled “Even Just One of These Children,” Pope Leo XIV insisted that “public and private institutions are obliged to place the protection and dignity of every migrant child and adolescent at the center” of their efforts.

Progress is not opposed to Christian faith

In his catechesis, the pope challenged the “prejudice” that portrays scientific and technological progress as being opposed to the Christian faith and warned of the “tragedy of atheistic humanism” described by French Jesuit Cardinal Henri de Lubac.

“In post-Christian humanisms, the human being and God are mistakenly presented as rivals: In order to assert his knowledge, his freedom, and his progress, man would have to emancipate himself from God. Ultimately, however, by denying the relationship with God, one also loses the possibility of affirming the transcendent value of the human person,” the pontiff said in St. Peter’s Square.

According to Leo, this interpretation “has brought about a change in the way contemporary man views the world, compared with previous ages,” opening the door to a “prejudice” that prevails especially in that part of Western culture that has lost its reference to Christian revelation.

As part of his reflections on the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Holy Father invited the faithful to ask: “What is the value of human activity in the world, and therefore of technical, social, and scientific progress?”

“Created in the image and likeness of God, the human being is the agent of progress. With freedom and intelligence, he increases his knowledge, thereby advancing society as a whole,” he explained.

Pope Leo XIV also said: “Humanity — and with it work, progress, and the autonomy of created realities — is not absorbed or nullified by the encounter with God but rather taken up in its entirety, continuing to be, in Christ, free and active: Indeed, it is in him that it finds full truth and freedom.”

Addressing the pilgrims gathered in the square, the pope said: “Christians, like everyone else, are involved in building the city of man, striving towards the end of all things and the encounter with God, and reminding those with whom they share the adventure of progress, science, and life of this ultimate purpose.”

He added, however, that earthly progress must be clearly distinguished from the development of Christ’s kingdom.

“Finally, let us recall that in order to become authentic human progress — that is, progress for the whole person and for all people — technical and scientific progress must be inspired and guided by charity. Only in this way can it always be placed in the service of human dignity and promote the living conditions of all, especially the most disadvantaged,” the pope concluded.

This story was first published in two parts by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lourdes this week will be key to his message of respect for human life in all stages and conditions, which is the theme of his Sept. 25–28 pastoral visit to France. Images of the pontiff meeting ailing pilgrims will complement the trip’s official motto: “That the World May Have Life.”

But the visit to the world-famous shrine will also be the moment where he will most directly address clerical sexual abuse, a crisis that has cast a shadow over the Church in France since a landmark abuse report in 2021.

Lourdes will be the setting Sept. 27 for the pope’s private meeting with sex abuse victims and a speech to the French Catholic bishops, who continue to deal with fallout from the abuse crisis. The shrine itself has been touched by controversy in recent years due to the prominent display there of artwork by a priest accused of sexual and spiritual abuse.

In a survey conducted in France ahead of the Sept. 25–28 visit, the topic of clerical sexual abuse loomed large.

For 15% of respondents, the fight against abuse and its prevention within the Church was the topic they most wanted the pope to address while in France. It was the second-most popular answer after “peace and conflict in the world.”

The Church in France has been grappling with the repercussions of abuse in the wake of the findings of an independent commission that found that likely hundreds of thousands of children had been abused over the past 70 years.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) published a nearly 2,500-page final report in October 2021, estimating that 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns in France from 1950 to 2020.

It added that when abuse by lay Church workers was also taken into account, “the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period.”

Some of these victims will take part in a private meeting with Pope Leo at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sept. 27.

According to the French bishops’ conference, the seven victims represent people abused as minors or adults in different contexts, including churches or Catholic schools.

The seven people issued a joint declaration, published in AFP on Sept. 16, stating: “To engage in dialogue [with Pope Leo] does not mean to endorse. To be received does not mean to renounce our demands.”

Five of the seven revealed their identities. Among them is Bertrand Virieux, a victim of ex-priest Bernard Preynat, who died in 2024 but in 2020 was sentenced to five years in prison for assaults on young scouts in the Archdiocese of Lyon.

According to the victims’ declaration, they met on Sept. 14 to prepare for the papal audience and to “share the fundamental questions” they wish to pose to the pope.

The encounter during the papal trip, which will also include stops in the cities of Paris and Metz, ignited controversy among several abuse support groups in France who criticized the format of the meeting and the choice of whom to include — especially the exclusion of victims’ groups. A spokesman for the Bétharram victims' collective, which represents former student victims from the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school near Lourdes, called the decision to include only individuals in the meeting with Leo an instance of “institutional contempt,” according to InfoVaticana.

Responding to the frustration, the bishops of France have promised to hold other gatherings for victims and to accept their letters after the papal trip.

Earlier on the same day that he meets the victims, Leo will take part in a closed-door meeting with France’s bishops. Given the importance of the abuse issue to the bishops in recent years, it is likely that the pope will address it in his remarks, Cyprien Viet, a Vatican journalist for I.Media, said.

Lourdes and Rupnik mosaics

The Lourdes shrine, one of the most visited Catholic sites in the world, is an evocative backdrop for the meeting with abuse victims, since it is among the first shrines to take definitive action to cover artwork by the accused sexual abuser Father Marko Rupnik, currently on trial at the Vatican.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes announced in August that mosaics by Rupnik on the façade of the Basilica of the Rosary would be covered ahead of the pope’s visit. In 2025, the mosaics had been partially covered.

“My role is to ensure that the shrine welcomes everyone, especially those who are suffering,” Micas told La Dépêche du Midi. "Among them are victims of sexual abuse and assault, both children and adults.”

Rupnik’s mosaics also grace the chapel of the apostolic nunciature in Paris, where Pope Leo will stay the night of Sept. 25–26, though no public events will take place there.

John Cavadini, a professor of patristic theology at the University of Notre Dame, will receive the 2026 Ratzinger Prize.

The Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI announced Cavadini as the winner of the prestigious award at a press briefing in Rome on Sept. 22. The foundation also said Pope Leo XIV will present the award to Cavadini on Dec. 19 at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Present to announce the winner on Sept. 22 at the Holy See Press Office were Father Roberto Regoli, president of the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, and Pierluca Azzaro, secretary of the foundation.

Cavadini will also be the third faculty member from the University of Notre Dame to receive the award, following Cyril O’Regan (2024) and Jesuit Father Brian E. Daley (2012). Since the award was established in 2011, the university has had the most winners of any institution.

In a press release from the foundation, Cavadini expressed gratitude for the award, saying he sought to conduct his theology “as a man of the Church and, at the same time, as a man of academia.”

The unique contributions of American theologians

Cavadini has been affiliated with the University of Notre Dame since joining its faculty of theology in 1990. He also served as the director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life from 2000–2026.

His research and teaching have focused on the theology of St. Augustine, an influential figure of the patristic era.

Regoli praised Cavadini’s work for the “rigor of his theological
publications, his commitment and zeal in university teaching.” Speaking to EWTN News on the sidelines of Tuesday’s press conference, he noted the unique contributions of theologians hailing from the United States.

Father Roberto Regoli, president of the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, speaks to EWTN News at the Holy See Press Office in Rome on Sept. 22, 2026. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

“Undoubtedly, the cultural debates in the United States of America do not concern only America; they are followed around the rest of the world,” Regoli told EWTN News. “Our cultural traditions have been more influenced by the thought of the United States of America, and for this reason it is important to look toward the Anglo-Saxon world, because in the different fields of science it has taken on a leadership role for several decades.”

The renewed interest in the theology of Joseph Ratzinger

The 2026 Ratzinger Prize is part of numerous initiatives to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Ratzinger, who was later elected Pope Benedict XVI, in 2027.

Pope Benedict XVI. | Credit: L’Osservatore Romano

Regoli also noted the renewed academic interest worldwide in Ratzinger’s life and theological legacy ahead of the anniversary year.

“The legacy of Ratzinger speaks for itself,” Regoli told journalists on the sidelines.

“If we look around us at an international level, even in recent years, Ratzinger chairs have been born everywhere: in Europe, in the United States, in Latin America, and in Africa. Many doctoral theses on him, books on him, or his books continue to be edited; they are numerous, and even for the centenary, many more will come out,” Regoli added.

One of the foundation’s focuses during the anniversary year will be Ratzinger’s legacy in Africa, with Azzaro telling EWTN News that, as pope, Ratzinger “strongly believed that Africa had the spiritual reserves necessary for the West to flourish again.”

Pope Leo XIV flies to France on Friday, where across four days in three cities he will proclaim Catholic teaching to the heart of secular Europe on matters that include end-of-life questions, immigration, and artificial intelligence.

The visit “will truly be a moment in which Leo’s project of making the Church’s social doctrine better known can take shape,” said Father Patrick Valdrini, a former rector of the Institut Catholique de Paris.

France is statistically more secular than it was in 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to the country. The latest data on religious identity in France, in 2019-2020, found that 51% of adults in France say they have no religious affiliation, an 8% increase from a decade before. While 29% of the population identifies as Catholic, the survey found only 8% say they go to Church regularly, according to the Institut National D’Etudes Démographiques.

Yet according to Cyprien Viet, a journalist with the French agency I.Media, the country has become more open to Catholicism in recent years. The reasons for this shift include sympathy for Christianity following attacks on churches and the 2016 killing by Islamist terrorists of Father Jacques Hamel, enhanced appreciation for France’s Christian heritage after the 2019 burning of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and gratitude for the Church’s charitable service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More recently, “Pope Leo’s encyclical on artificial intelligence [Magnifica Humanitas] has had a fairly strong impact in France, and people recognize that there is a need to explore these issues more deeply. The pope is helping greatly in providing points of reference,” Viet said.

The challenge of laïcité

During his Sept. 25–28 visits to Paris, Lourdes, and Metz, Leo’s approach to sharing the Catholic Church’s teaching on political and social issues will draw wide attention, not least because of France’s tradition of “laïcité,” a strict legal separation of Church and state.

This policy has always involved a certain distrust, even hostility, toward the idea that faith can contribute something good to society, Valdrini said.

“The concept of ‘laïcité’ emerged especially during the French Revolution, rooted in the view that religion hinders freedom and reason, that it is something burdensome rather than liberating,” he said.

Among the most sensitive issues that the pope is expected to address are end-of-life questions. France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It differs from assisted dying, in which the patient takes life-ending drugs himself, under a physician’s guidance. Both practices are prohibited by Catholic teaching.

Francis X. Rocca, Vatican editor of EWTN News, interviews Charles Personnaz, French ambassador to the Holy See, at his offices in Rome on Sept. 10, 2026. | Credit: Daniel Ibanez/EWTN News

Charles Personnaz, France’s ambassador to the Holy See, says he expects the pope to speak out on the issue but to leave the political debate to the French bishops, who were already outspoken in their vigorous condemnation of the euthanasia bill before it passed in July.

“I think the pope will certainly repeat what is the Catholic doctrine: the preservation of life from the beginning to … the natural end,” the ambassador said. “But he will also leave to … the French Catholic Church the debate with the political parties in France and the institutions. That is the subsidiarity that is at the heart of Catholic doctrine as well.”

A message about human dignity

On a visit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, Pope Leo is expected to deliver a message about the inherent dignity of every human person, even when suffering from illness or disability.

Meeting and praying with the sick and vulnerable at one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world, the Holy Father will give a concrete sign of faith in the value of every human life.

At the shrine he will also meet privately with victims of abuse in the Catholic Church in France and with the country’s bishops.

The Massabielle Grotto in Lourdes, France. | Credit: Christian Pablo Inglize/Shutterstock

Leo is expected to address the global challenges posed by artificial intelligence when he speaks at the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, in Paris on Sept. 25. On his last day, he will reflect on interreligious dialogue and the future of Europe at meetings in Metz.

The pope’s visit to a migrant integration center run by the Archdiocese of Paris will touch on one of the most volatile political issues in Europe and beyond, and one closely tied to next year’s presidential election in France, in which the anti-immigration politician Marine Le Pen is the current frontrunner.

Personnaz said he expects the pope’s comments on immigration to be well received, calling the pontiff’s previous statements on the topic “very balanced” with a focus on the responsibility of nations to help people stay in their homeland.

State visit or apostolic journey?

Pope Francis visited France three times during his pontificate, but Leo will be making the first state visit by a pope to France since Benedict XVI’s apostolic journey in 2008.

The French Catholic newspaper La Croix has reported that the Holy See has refused some requests by the government, including a proposal that President Emmanuel Macron accompany the pontiff into Notre-Dame Cathedral for a prayer service on Sept. 25. The Holy See Press Office and the Élysée Palace, the official residence and office of the French president, did not respond to requests for comment on the report.

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. | Credit: Mistervlad/Shutterstock

According to Valdrini, Leo is following in the tradition of St. Paul VI, who sought to emphasize the pastoral character of his travel — the visit to a local Church by the successor of Peter — rather than his role as a head of state.

“It will still be a state visit, and there will be official ceremonies, but it is clear that the pope wanted to emphasize, as previous popes did, this [apostolic] dimension of the journey,” Valdrini said.

Catholicism grows

Despite a lack of religious practice in France, enthusiasm for Pope Leo’s visit is high, as demonstrated by the response to his events with the public in France’s capital.

Adolescents and young adults have snapped up tickets for a prayer vigil in the 81,000-seat Stade de France and an open-air Mass in Place de la Concorde. Paris’ largest public square may draw some of the biggest crowds of his pontificate thus far, with 600,000 people expected to fill the square and a nearly two-mile stretch of avenue connecting to the Arc de Triomphe. This enthusiasm is also reflected in an atypical outpouring of donations to the dioceses to cover organizational costs.

Leo will address France’s Catholics at a critical juncture in their history, as they welcome rising numbers of converts. He is likely to encourage the nation traditionally known as “the eldest daughter of the Church” to rediscover her Catholic roots.

This Easter, France recorded more than 20,000 adult and adolescent baptisms, a 20% increase from the already record-high number in 2025, which saw a 45% increase from 2024 figures.

The phenomenon has prompted the bishops of Île de France, the ecclesiastical region that includes the Archdiocese of Paris, to convene a special council on how to respond to the huge influx of Catholic converts.

“Today people have not inherited their faith ... and so they are kind of ignorant about the Catholic heritage,” Personnaz said. “But when they discover it, they have no prejudices about it. And in a world where the youth are searching for a sense to [their] life, the Catholic proposal remains very interesting.”

Francis X. Rocca and Victoria Cardiel contributed to this report.