Harmony Square in Paris, the city’s largest public square at Champs-Élysées’ east end.
Pope Leo XIV has opened a four-day visit to France with speeches at the Élysée and UNESCO warning that artificial intelligence risks dehumanising society and amplifying misinformation. He has reiterated the Church’s pro‑life teaching ahead of meetings in Paris, Lourdes and Metz and will privately meet seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Lourdes.
The Vatican has estimated that hundreds of thousands attend Pope Leo XIV’s Mass in Paris, with 700,000 crowds at Place de la Concorde and Champs-Élysées. Macron is represented rather than attending, and the pope is discussing issues from clerical abuse to AI, as France remains officially secular.