French popular response has been overwhelming.
No quasi-pagan ‘blessing of the ice’, no gay rainbow clothes in Cathedrals, no focus on leftist proselytism, no obsessing over Ukraine and Gaza.
Pope Leo XIV’s historic visit was surprisingly filled with… religion.
The eldest daughter of the Church, France blossomed to receive the Pontiff: church bells rang across the country for seven minutes to mark the arrival.
Leo rode his Popemobile while 300,000 people lined the streets of Paris with chants and flags.
He spent Vespers at the magnificent Notre-Dame Cathedral, the first papal visit since the 2019 fire and 2024 reopening.
There, 8,000 people chanted the Salve Rainha with him, bringing him to tears.
Moving scenes as Pope Leo XIV cries as thousands of faithful sing the Salve Regina in Latin to honour Our Lady of Paris, on the steps of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. pic.twitter.com/bsIKknJGFE
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) September 25, 2026
But there was so much more to come: Leo’s youth vigil at Stade de France gathered 80,000 fervent young people aged 17–35.
A visibly moved Leo called them ‘the saints of France’.
The sound you hear is the noise of 80,000 young people gathered in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis to listen to the encouraging words of the Vicar of Christ himself, Pope Leo XIV. pic.twitter.com/4ZfezzRM9J
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) September 25, 2026
It was one of the most moving moments of Pope Leo XIV’s Prayer Vigil with young people at the Stade de France.
Hundreds of actors represented France’s more than 1,700 saints and blesseds, creating a striking image of a true “army of holiness.”
Pope Leo XIV was deeply moved and,… pic.twitter.com/NaRj50JSBR
— EWTN News (@EWTNews) September 25, 2026
Saint Joan of Arc honoured by a woman on horseback at Pope Leo XIV’s Youth Vigil with 80,000 young people in the Stade de France pic.twitter.com/QUFhis4aOd
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) September 25, 2026
And the Christian ‘popular response’ in France is perhaps best expressed by the surge in adult baptisms.
The ‘secular Republic’ is seeing a sharp rise in chosen (rather than inherited) faith: in Easter 2026, a total of 21,386 adolescents and adults received baptisms – up 28% from 2025, and more than tripled since 2016 (4,124 that year).
In total, up to a million people are expected – in Paris alone – to catch a glimpse of Leo in the first Papal state visit to France in 18 years.
FRANCE 🇫🇷
‘A President who claims to be uninterested in the church and Catholics would be failing in his duty’
Pope Leo XIV to Emmanuel Macron in Paris pic.twitter.com/Nbuy8yHqjr
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) September 25, 2026
So, the terrain was fertile for Leo’s most important statement of the state visit, so far:
Pope kicks off French visit with rebuke on assisted dying laws https://t.co/8fTHROkhkN
— The Times and Sunday Times (@thetimes) September 25, 2026
The Telegraph reported:
“Pope Leo XIV criticized assisted dying in a speech at the Elysée Palace in front of Emmanuel Macron, just weeks after France passed a law allowing euthanasia.
[…] Mr. Macron rolled out the red carpet at the presidential residence for the Pope, whose grandmother was French, but that did not prevent the pontiff from criticizing the new law.
‘I am concerned at times 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’, he said with Mr. Macron by his side.”
NEW: Pope Leo to UNESCO in Paris hits back against euthanasia —
“The human being is certainly one who is born, but also one who dies.
Our dignity is not destroyed by illness or suffering, nor is it dependent upon our abilities.
Rather, it calls for loving care at every stage… pic.twitter.com/OAvVGRwmCM— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) September 25, 2026
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