Ahead of the first anniversary of his election to the chair of St. Peter, it was announced that Pope Leo XIV is officially expected to visit France in late September, the French Bishop’s conference confirmed May 6.
During the visit, French bishops suggested Pope Leo will travel to Paris and to the Marian Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, president of the French bishops’ conference, said in the press release.
The French bishops have not yet announced the exact date of the papal visit. For several weeks now, rumours have been circulating in the Paris region that it could take place around Sept. 19. Some bishops have communicated this date to their parish priests so they can adjust their parish schedules accordingly. But this remains to be confirmed by the Vatican. In March, Cardinal Aveline, who frequently visits the Vatican, had already openly informed the bishops of France during their spring plenary assembly that he had invited Pope Leo.
The visit would fall just before the start of the campaign for the upcoming presidential elections, which will take place in the spring of 2027, and which will bring an end to Emmanuel Macron’s two five-year terms as president of the republic.
On April 10, President Macron confirmed that he, too, had invited Pope Leo during his meeting with the pope at the Vatican. Among the members of the delegation accompanying Macron to the Vatican was the rector of the Sanctuary of Lourdes, Father Michel Daubanes.
“It is absolutely clear that the pope is coming to Lourdes!” he later exclaimed in a video interview from the Sanctuary of Lourdes, broadcasted April 24. “We are eagerly awaiting him!”
As of May 6, the day of the announcement, logistical preparations for the pope’s visit were well underway in Lourdes. “We have developed a preliminary program with the presidency of the bishops’ conference and with the Archdiocese of Paris,” Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes told OSV News. “It is planned that the pope will celebrate a solemn Mass on the sanctuary’s lawn and preside over the torchlight procession in the evening, before spending the night there, though we are awaiting confirmation from the Vatican.”
