Pope Leo XIV's planned visit to France from September 25 to 28 has already generated a huge wave of registrations, the Paris diocese said Monday, August 10. It is the pope's first trip to France since his election last year.
The diocese said on the social network X that capacity had now been reached at the Stade de France for a vigil with young people, counting people already registered, those on a waiting list, and groups still finalizing their sign-ups. It urged those groups to complete their registration quickly.
The diocese said the waiting list remains open. It said spots could still become available through cancellations or the removal of duplicate entries, and would then be offered first to people already on the waiting list.
Champs-Élysées mass also fills up
The diocese described an equally impressive surge in sign-ups for the mass planned for Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées on Saturday, September 26. It said more than 200,000 people had registered on the very first day registration opened, at midday Monday. It strongly recommended registering to attend but said people who had not signed up would still be able to take part, within the limits of the space set aside for them. All the events are free.
Full four-day itinerary
The visit, the pope's first trip to France since his 2025 election, begins September 25 with a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, followed by a speech at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Leo XIV will then celebrate vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral before the vigil with young people aged 17 to 35 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of the capital.
On Saturday, September 26, he will hold the Concorde and Champs-Élysées mass, expected to draw around 500,000 participants in total. On Sunday, September 27, he will celebrate another open-air mass at Lourdes, one of the main Catholic pilgrimage sites.
The trip ends Monday, September 28, in Moselle, where Robert Schuman, one of the founders of European integration, is buried and whose beatification process the Church has opened. Leo XIV is scheduled to give a speech on Europe at the Metz Congress Centre and celebrate mass at the city's cathedral. The Vatican said the pope will also meet privately with victims of sexual violence during the trip, without providing further details. The Church in France said the trip is funded almost entirely by donations from the faithful.
