Pope Leo Draws 800,000 Faithful to Outdoor Mass in Central Paris

Pope Leo XIV drew an estimated 800,000 people to central Paris on Saturday for a vast open-air Mass, filling one of France’s most historic public squares as he urged Catholics to share their faith openly in an “increasingly secularized society.”

Crowds carrying flags lined the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde as the American pope traveled about 1.2 miles through the French capital in the popemobile before celebrating Mass.

The Vatican placed the attendance at 800,000—about 200,000 more than the number of people who had registered in advance.

Families and other worshippers filled the streets, lifting babies and young children toward the popemobile as Leo passed through Paris.

“Seeing you gathered here,” Leo told the worshippers, was like looking upon the “heirs of France’s long and beautiful history of faith,” according to Vatican News.

He urged French Catholics not to keep that religious heritage to themselves.

“Let it overflow, so that those you meet may be refreshed and their thirst satisfied,” Leo said. “From this beautiful city of Paris, I pray fervently that the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow throughout France.”

The location gave the event added significance in a nation long associated with a strict tradition of secularism.

Place de la Concorde once served as an execution site during the French Revolution, where the devoutly Catholic King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were guillotined. In modern France, the square is closely linked to the republic and regularly hosts Bastille Day celebrations.

Holding a papal Mass at the site drew criticism from supporters of France’s strict church-state separation, who said a different venue would have been more suitable.

The scenes from Leo’s visit also stood in sharp contrast to another major Paris spectacle held just two years earlier.

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics sparked international controversy over a tableau involving drag performers that Christian leaders and other critics said mocked Christianity.

The French Bishops’ Conference said at the time that the ceremony “included scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity,” and that Christians worldwide had been “hurt by the outrageousness and provocation of certain scenes.”

Critics widely viewed the tableau as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” although Olympic organizers rejected that interpretation.

Leo’s visit comes as France records a notable rise in adult conversions, even while overall participation in Catholic life continues its decades-long decline.

According to The Associated Press, the number of adult baptisms in France has tripled since 2016, reaching 13,000 this year. Total baptisms, however, have dropped steeply over the longer term—from 513,000 in 1980 to 186,000 in 2024.

Leo thanked French families, young people, catechumens and new Christians for bearing witness to their faith in what he described as an “increasingly secularized society,” according to Vatican News.

The scale of the pope’s reception was already apparent the night before the Mass as some 80,000 young people packed France’s national stadium Friday for a vigil featuring fireworks and a theatrical retelling of the country’s Catholic history.

“Thank you for your courage! Thank you for your presence,” Leo told them in French. “Thank you for your faith. You are the saints of France!”

At Saturday’s Mass, Leo invoked France’s Catholic heritage and drew on the biblical image of “living water,” telling worshippers that Jesus Christ could satisfy humanity’s desire for “life, truth, unity, peace, communion, and happiness.”

He also invoked French Catholic saints including Irenaeus, Martin and Francis de Sales while praising those who continue to work for “life, the family, truth, peace, fraternity and justice.”

The sea of people rivaled some of the largest public celebrations to fill the Champs-Élysées in recent decades, including France’s World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018, according to the AP.

Leo’s four-day trip to France began Friday with a visit to the restored Notre Dame Cathedral, the first by a pope since the devastating 2019 fire.

He traveled Saturday night to Lourdes, one of the Catholic Church’s most visited pilgrimage sites.