By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Pope Leo leaves on Friday for a weekend visit to France, where he is hoping to repair the Catholic Church’s standing after abuse scandals and is expected to renew calls for global rules on AI development while laying out a vision for Europe’s future.
Leo is likely to draw large crowds on the September 25 to 28 visit, which includes stops in Paris, at the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes, in the southwest, and in Metz, a city on the German border central to the founding of the European Union.
Some 600,000 people have registered to join an outdoor Mass in central Paris with Leo on Saturday, with throngs expected to stretch down the famed Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
“Pope Leo’s visit to France has sparked a real tidal wave” of interest, retired French Bishop Marc Stenger told Reuters.
AI AT TOP OF PAPAL AGENDA
Leading Leo’s agenda on Friday are speeches to President Emmanuel Macron and other French leaders at the Élysée Palace and to staff at the headquarters of the UN culture and education body, UNESCO, which is facing budget shortfalls after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agency in 2025.
The first US pope attracted Trump’s ire earlier this year after criticizing the Iran war.
Leo, who has made the risks spurred by AI a major concern of his papacy and has called on world leaders for global rules to oversee the industry, is expected to address the issue at UNESCO.
In a speech at the Vatican on Thursday, the pope said AI could benefit humanity, but has introduced “new dangers to security and international peace”. He urged global leaders to “govern wisely” in overseeing the technology.
Leo’s visit comes as Catholic leaders in France have been at odds with the government over the 2024 enshrining of a right to abortion in the French constitution, a world first, and the passage of a law earlier this year legalizing assisted dying for adults with incurable illnesses.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred and opposes abortion, assisted dying and capital punishment.
Leo will also lead a prayer service in Paris on Friday at the restored Notre-Dame cathedral, in the first visit by a pope since a devastating fire nearly destroyed the Gothic masterpiece in 2019.
POPE TO MEET ABUSE SURVIVORS
Leo is the first pope to make an official visit to France in nearly 20 years. Local Church leaders hope the trip will repair the Church’s standing after a crushing 2021 report found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.
French bishops have since introduced compensation and safeguarding measures, but survivors have continued to press Church leaders to demonstrate accountability.
“Leo bears the immense responsibility of ‘declaring enough is enough’,” Alain Esquerre, 66, a spokesperson for victims at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram Catholic institution, told Reuters.
The pope will meet seven French victims of abuse by Catholic clergy on Sunday in Lourdes. The Vatican, which usually only issues statements about the pope’s meetings with abuse victims afterwards, has not provided further details.
Leo’s French tour will culminate in Metz on Sunday with a speech on “the roots of Europe for peace and unity”.
Macron has invited leaders from all 27 EU member states to attend but it is unclear who will come.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy may attend, according to media reports. Zelenskiy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Elizabeth Pineau; editing by Alex Richardson)
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