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PARIS \u2014 Pope Leo XIV arrived in Paris Sept. 25 beginning his four-day trip to France by urging French leaders not to forget their duty to protect every human life in a forceful speech at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace condemning \u201cassisted dying,\u201d abortion and surrogacy.<\/p>\n
In a speech at the official residence of President Emmanuel Macron, the pope told France\u2019s civil authorities that \u201cthe protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed concern about \u201ctrends 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\u2019s own death.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nCalling the lawmakers to a conversion and minds and hearts, the pope underlined the need to \u201cto welcome life unconditionally, to support frailty with loving care, to accompany every stage of life with respect and mutual trust, and to defend with courage and compassion those unable to make their voices heard and those who feel ignored or overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us not forget that mutual respect and the protection of every human life is a duty incumbent upon each and every one of us,\u201d Pope Leo said, recalling that the \u201cUniversal Declaration of Human Rights\u201d was first proclaimed in Paris.<\/p>\n
The speech at the 18th-century palace was the pope\u2019s first public address of his Sept. 25 to 28 apostolic journey to France, an official state visit that will bring him from the French capital to the Marian shrine of Lourdes in the south and the northeastern city of Metz near the German border.<\/p>\n
The motto for the papal visit is \u201cThat the world may have life\u201d (John 6:51), a theme that resonates with the faithful in the country after a vote by French lawmakers in July to legalize \u201cassisted dying,\u201d including euthanasia and assisted suicide in certain cases, a move that French bishops called a \u201cradical choice.\u201d The French Parliament also made abortion a constitutional right in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cNowadays there is a temptation to expect science to eliminate or alleviate every form of suffering. This often brings the risk of self-delusion,\u201d Pope Leo said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor when science and technology are not guided by a deeper wisdom, they can offer immediate solutions that apparently address people\u2019s wishes and their pain, but can seriously divert them from the greater good to which they aspire.\u201d<\/p>\n The pope pointed to the witness of the charitable works of St. Vincent de Paul in 17th-century Paris and the many Catholic institutions that continue that legacy today.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough the remarkable efforts of men and women who remained faithful to their humanity and to the values of the Gospel, the Catholic Church in France has demonstrated constant concern for the welfare of the poor and underprivileged, and has sought to be the living face of God\u2019s own mercy and compassion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our own day, those many Catholic institutions where caregivers accompany our brothers and sisters in their sufferings,\u201d he added. \u201cThese examples of care and concern serve as a true lesson in humanity; they show the grandeur of compassion and are a powerful reminder of the unique and irreplaceable worth of every human being.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Leo highlighted the centrality of the Catholic faith in French culture for many centuries as \u201ca land with deep Christian roots\u201d from the second-century St. Irenaeus of Lyon and the baptism of Clovis, the King of the Franks, in 496, whose conversion led France to be known as the \u201cEldest Daughter of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n While France is a traditionally Catholic country, today the government maintains a strict form of secularism in public life called \u201cla\u00efcit\u00e9\u201d that separates church and state.<\/p>\n Statistics vary in the last years, but on average more than half of the French population today identifies as \u201cnonreligious.\u201d In light of this secularization, Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, spokesman for the French bishops\u2019 conference, has said that \u201cthere is a genuine thirst in the heart of modern man\u201d in France, pointing to the record number of French adults and teenagers choosing to be baptized this year as evidence that \u201cspiritual curiosity is awakening in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Leo said that France is a country that is frequently in his prayers, recalling his personal family origins in Normandy and B\u00e9arn.<\/p>\n The papal plane, a chartered ITA airways jet, touched down in the Paris Orly Airport minutes before 10 a.m. During the roughly two-hour flight from Rome, Pope Leo spoke with journalists about how the trip to France \u201chas a number of very important topics.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by OSV News about the Sept. 24 beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the pope said he was \u201cvery happy to have been able to approve that,\u201d and that at his family home \u201cwe watched him as a family \u2026 spending some time together \u2026 with the truths, with the teachings that he shared in such an enthusiastic, lively way.\u201d<\/p>\n President Macron personally welcomed Pope Leo to France at the foot of the stairs at the airport runway at the start of the pope\u2019s whirlwind first day in the French capital. The pope\u2019s first stop was the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace, where he met privately with the French president before addressing French civil authorities and diplomatic corps.<\/p>\n In the early afternoon, Pope Leo will visit the UNESCO headquarters, near the Eiffel Tower, to speak about the protection of young people in the age of new technologies and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n The pope will then travel through downtown Paris in the popemobile to Place Saint-Michel, across from the \u00cele de la Cit\u00e9, where Notre Dame Cathedral is located.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bells of all the churches will ring to welcome him,\u201d Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris said ahead of the trip.<\/p>\n At Notre Dame, the pope will celebrate vespers with 2,000 bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and consecrated persons. It will be the first papal visit since the devastating fire in April 2019 and the years-long restoration that followed before the reopening of the 800-year-old cathedral in December 2024.<\/p>\n In the evening, the pope will travel to the iconic venue for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games \u2014 Stade de France in Saint-Denis \u2014 where he will take part in a prayer vigil bringing together an expected 80,000 young people.<\/p>\n On Sept. 26, Pope Leo<\/a> will celebrate an open-air Mass in Paris for which nearly 600,000 people have registered at the Place de la Concorde and the Avenue des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. In another witness to the dignity of every human life, the papal Mass will have altar servers with Down syndrome in a country with a 68% abortion rate in cases of a prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome.<\/p>\n The pope will also visit a Catholic social center Maison Bakhita, dedicated to the assistance of refugees in the city\u2019s Montmartre neighborhood, and meet with catechumens and neophytes at the archdiocese\u2019s major university as part of the Synodal Assembly of \u00cele-de-France, which is taking place in the archdiocese to better welcome the influx of young people and adults who ask for baptism.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>