Pope Leo XIV visits Lourdes after giant Paris mass to meet clergy abuse victims

Pope Leo XIV prayed for France on Saturday at the holy shrine of Lourdes, after riding along the Champs Elysées in the popemobile and holding an emotional open-air mass in front of hundreds of thousands of worshippers in Paris.

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades.

In the southwestern pilgrimage town the US pontiff prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 to a peasant girl, later Saint Bernadette.

Months of ahead of a presidential election with the far-right surging and immigration high on the agenda, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to "obtain for France wise and generous leaders ... eager to serve the common good".

"May they make her (France's) voice heard in promoting the defence of fundamental human rights and peace in the world, rejecting the mentality of war once and for all."

AFP reporters saw him perform the rituals observed by the many pilgrims to the cave: touching the rock, lighting a candle and drinking spring water.

On Sunday, Leo will meet privately with seven victims of clerical sex abuse. A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over seven decades.

The first US pontiff was visiting France seven months before voters choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron.

A number of presidential hopefuls were present, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Édouard Philippe.

Macron did not attend the mass but was represented by his wife Brigitte. The president said in a message on X that France was "proud to welcome Pope Leo XIV and this monumental mass in the heart of Paris".

Earlier in the day, the pope met migrants at Maison Bakhita, an association supporting refugees. Leo said it was "possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace".

Read more 'A once-in-a-lifetime event': Faithful and curious flock to Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Paris

He also stressed the "fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love".

The association said the pope's visit sent a "message" ahead of the April-May election.

Thousands of faithful watched his arrival at the site on giant screens.

The sanctuary, one of the most important Catholic holy sites in the world, receives some three million pilgrims each year. Catholics credit it with miraculous healings.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)