Thousands of young French Catholics converge on soccer stadium for prayer with Pope Leo
SAINT-DENIS, France — At least 80,000 young Catholics flocked to France’s national soccer stadium north of Paris on Friday night to pray with Pope Leo XIV and to hear his message for the Church.
Whether they were lifting their arms in praise-and-worship or silently venerating the relics of saints and the Holy Tunic of Christ, the entire Stade de France was united in prayer before Leo’s arrival and throughout an hour and a half-long program.
People from working-class suburbs stood alongside families from the more traditional Catholic milieu associated with the city of Versailles. In the lines outside the stadium, Breton and Vendéan flags — from regions with strong Catholic histories — stood alongside groups with a more popular, charismatic style.
One young woman, 29-year-old Romance Bono, wiped tears from her eyes as the pope entered the stadium to deafening cheers.
“It brought tears to my eyes because it’s such an emotional moment,” she told EWTN News. “Seeing all these young people cheering for the pope like a rock star, that is the strength of the Church, and it is the future of the Church here. It was very moving.”
Soon after Pope Leoʼs arrival at the stadium, hundreds of young French Catholics staged an artistic performance depicting French saints and the history of the Church in France, including the use of live horses, and culminating in fireworks launched above the stadium.
One 28-year-old volunteer, Jacques-Henri de Livron, told EWTN News that as soon as he heard the pope was coming to France, he decided to take a day off work to see him. He was so afraid of missing the events that he volunteered to make sure he could be in attendance. De Livron grew up in a Catholic environment, but returned to the faith in his twenties after painful deaths among his siblings and close friends. Those experiences, he said, made him recognize its value anew.
“Christianity is really the religion of the human person,” he said. “In this age of narcissism, it helps us get out of ourselves, turn toward others and care about them instead of thinking only about ourselves. People often call it a religion of the book, or a religion of revelation. But it’s much more than that. It’s the religion of the human person.”
De Livron also made a point of sharing his surname, which is unusual in France, where anticlerical culture is widespread and religious people usually ask to be identified in press reports only by their first names in order to avoid trouble at work. “I want to be part of a generation that stops being afraid to testify, that gives its name, and isn’t afraid of anything,” he said.
Pierre-Alain Belaube, 34, described the effort to arrive hours early after a long day at work, and to fight the crowds to enter into the packed stadium, as “200% worth it. It’s a privilege to be here.”
Belaube described himself as a formerly lukewarm Catholic, whose life was transformed when he read the autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
“I have the hope that many more young people will open their hearts to God and let him change their life,” he said. “I think that such an event can be, for many, the first milestone of a life-changing experience. I hope we will inspire many more young people to get to know Jesus.”
Thibault, a religious brother who preferred not to give his last name because he did not have permission from his superiors to speak with reporters, accompanied 400 members from the youth movement of his religious community, the Missionaries of Divine Mercy, to the event.
He told EWTN News that it is very moving to be surrounded by young people “wanting to say, ‘Here I am, I’m Catholic and I’m proud to show it.’”
The young religious, who is also studying for the priesthood, said he hopes Leo’s visit to France “will contribute to the missionary awakening that needs to happen in France.”
While the primarily secular country is seeing a surprising surge in baptisms, he said he thinks “Catholics still find it difficult to go out and meet people, to be missionaries in their daily lives.”
“I think this could become a significant moment in the life of the Church in France.”
In his message during the prayer, which included religious hymns and a Litany of Saints, Leo invited young people to shun evil and strive for good.
“God is the Lord of history, and no matter what happens, he guides its course toward salvation. In Christ, every evil comes to an end, precisely because that end becomes the beginning of a new and eternal life,” he said.
“The work well done, the work that is good, is the redemption that Jesus accomplishes for us,” Leo said. “Through his struggle against sin and death, Christ’s victory sets us free. He saves us from all evil and invites us to all that is good.”
The pontiff also answered the questions of two young French people as part of the evening’s program.
Chloé, 25, talked about her involvement in her parish and in a group of young Catholics “eager to live out and share their faith with others.” But she lamented that society “is founded on different principles” and sometimes has “no regard for the question of God.”
Pope Leo responded that, “It is true, as you say, that the society in which we live seems indifferent to God. But the Lord is not indifferent to us! This is what matters, and what always gives us hope.”
Chloé, who is from Saint-Denis, described the vitality of Catholic life there. Saint-Denis is often described as a quartier sensible (“a vulnerable neighborhood”). Her testimony echoed what EWTN News heard from local Catholics in the crowd, including people from immigrant backgrounds, about the life of the Church in their neighborhoods that have a strong Muslim presence.
A young man from Burgundy, named François, also addressed the pope and asked him how young people can discern how the Lord is calling them to serve.
Leo’s advice to young people was to keep their hearts open to the suffering of their peers, to follow Jesus, and to draw inspiration from the examples of the saints.
“Even in the face of persecution, these brothers and sisters of ours opened paths of peace. Look to those priests who were passionate about Christ, such as St. Eugene de Mazenod and St. John Mary Vianney. Look to the mystical beauty of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus; the fervor in charity and mission of Blessed Pauline Jaricot; and the courage of the 50 martyrs of the apostolate who served their brothers and sisters even to the point of sacrificing their own lives during the Second World War,” he said.
“These saints changed the course of history by leading many people from hardship to hope, since they first changed their own hearts, transforming them in the light of faith.”
The youth vigil was the pope’s last event on a packed first day in France. The Sept. 25-28 journey will also take him to Lourdes and Metz.
Texas abortion law not to blame for death of Tierra Walker, pro-lifers say
A lawsuit is targeting Texas’ law against abortion, saying a 37-year-old woman was a casualty of the law — but pro-life physicians disagree.
Tierra Walker, 37, died of preeclampsia in December 2024 after multiple hospitalizations due to her high-risk pregnancy. She suffered from high blood pressure, seizures, severe pain, and deep vein thrombosis. Two days before she died, doctors sent her home from the emergency room, saying that she was “stable enough.”
Her family has since filed a lawsuit dated Sept. 15 against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as Walker’s doctors, the Texas Medical Board, and the University of Texas health system, claiming that she was denied an abortion that could have saved her life, and blaming Texas’s abortion law for her death.
“Tierra Walker is dead and those responsible must be held accountable,” the complaint begins. “At every turn, Texas’s political and medical establishments not only failed but actively harmed Ms. Walker.”
Texas law allows abortions to save the life of the mother; all pro-life states in the U.S. make this exception. Responding to claims that the pro-life law is to blame, pro-life leaders contend that the tragedy was caused by a failure of the medical system.
The head of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians And Gynecologists (AAPLOG), Dr. Christina Francis, says that Walker likely would have survived if she had been given standard medical care — care that is already legal in Texas.
“My heart goes out to Ms. Walkerʼs family, and I hope that this devastating loss is a wake-up call to the medical community and our society to invest in better maternal health care,” Francis told EWTN News.
“The tragic death of Tierra Walker highlights significant problems in maternity care in the United States today, including poor healthcare coordination and insufficiently treating severe medical conditions,” Francis said. “As healthcare professionals, we take an oath to care for our patients, even when it requires extensive hospitalization and extended monitoring.”
“Her death was likely preventable and the result of inadequate medical care; it was certainly not the fault of Texas' abortion law,” Francis said.
Francis said that according to court records Walker “needed coordinated, standards-based medical care.”
“This wouldʼve included controlling her blood pressure more aggressively, diagnostic testing that appeared to be erroneously denied, and continued hospitalization until her condition stabilized,” said Francis.
“Preeclampsia at 20 weeks of pregnancy is, by definition, severe,” Francis said. “If Ms. Walker had been stabilized immediately and then delivered rather than being sent home, she would likely still be alive today. Texas law would have allowed this standard medical care.”
“Induced abortion is not a blanket solution,” Francis said. “Better healthcare is.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America spokeswoman Kelsey Pritchard cited failure of medical care, and noted that the lawyer in charge of the case has strong pro-abortion-access ties.
“Tierra Walker’s death is tragic and it’s clear there was a failure on multiple levels to provide the high-risk pregnancy care she needed,” Pritchard said. “SBA Pro-Life America has strongly advocated Med Ed policies that make it clear no law anywhere in the country blocks doctors’ duty to act to save lives in pregnancy emergencies.”
“The career pro-abortion activist lawyer behind this lawsuit, who boasts about facilitating an out-of-state abortion on the very same day the Dobbs decision came out, and the inclusion of Senate candidate Ken Paxton give away that there is a political agenda separate from families’ understandable pain and anger,” Pritchard added.
“Attorneys general enforce the law, they don’t make it, but Ken Paxton has vigorously upheld state law protecting both unborn babies and women,” Pritchard said. “Activist lawyers seeking a test case as a pretense to attack the laws is nothing new, it’s how we got Roe v. Wade. That cynical strategy will not succeed in Texas.”
“Abortion activists would rather spread fear about pro-life laws than address complex disparities in care, and their misinformation has consequences that put real women in real danger,” Pritchard said.
A Catholic support program for the children of divorced parents
According to a study presented in 2024, in Spain much like in many other countries, “the approximate probability of a marriage ending in divorce is around 50%.” This is a reality that affects the society at large, and one from which the Catholic Church is not exempt.
The same study also found that in Spain specifically, the percentage of couples marrying in the Catholic Church is down 83% since 1975.
To address the high divorce rate, the Family Guidance Center (COF, by its Spanish acronym) of the Diocese of Cuenca has developed the Niño equilibrista (Child Equilibrist) program which, following a mutual support group model, provides care for the children of separated and divorced parents.
Marta Guillén Tena, director of the COF, explained in an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the program’s name alludes to the “balancing of loyalties” that a child must deal with when their parents separate, a process that also often involves a legal dispute in which the child is caught in the middle.
“They need to have enough freedom and awareness to know that they can love both their father and their mother equally,” she noted. The children “basically need to feel heard and have their pain acknowledged,” as well as to convey to them that their parents, “come what may, will always be their parents.”
The situation of these children poses a challenge for the Church, given that it preaches the sanctity of marriage and its indivisible unity. What the children go through also presents difficulties when it comes to explaining to them the concept of God the Father.
“Child Equilibrist,” Guillén added, is a broad concept that also refers to adolescents, young people, and even adults who “can identify that child equilibrist that they carry in their hearts.”
‘It seems like they don’t notice, but they do’
The origins of the project lie in a common response from parents seeking help at the Cuenca Family Counseling Center (COF) when they are asked about their children. “What the parents conveyed to us was that their children were doing fine,” the director explained.
However, the reality is that “children, it seems like they don’t notice, but they do” pick up on what is happening around them, which is why the center launched this special, year-long program.
The program is designed to provide these children with tools to communicate with their parents, peers, and other key figures such as grandparents, teachers, or catechists. They are taught to distinguish between what happens within their family and what defines them as individuals.
‘No one is going to judge them’
Teresa Sarabia, coordinator of the Cuenca Family Guidance Center and the program itself, explained that the children are also helped to “understand the grieving process and what they are going through,” to manage their emotions, and to address their relationship with God and the concept of forgiveness, “since they sometimes waver between assigning blame and forgiveness,” Sarabia indicated.
“This is a setting of absolute confidentiality where all the children and their parents are free to express themselves openly. No one will judge them. We welcome them with authenticity and sincerity — nothing is feigned. We do this out of love, for the greater glory of God, not for our own greater glory,” Guillén explained.
For the time being, the program involves adult children partly because, at times, one parent will not give consent, but also because “we felt it was the most urgent priority, since they are the ones who will soon be starting families of their own,” Sarabia noted.
The coordinator said that the focus is the child, “but the idea is to work with the whole family,” so parents are kept informed of the path their children are on, “so that they can talk about it at home later. The idea is to build bridges between them and make this something that can be discussed openly.”
A program for the Church
The program for “The Child Equilibrist” was launched after eight years of preparation involving numerous experts from Spain and abroad. The aim is for the program to be widely adopted and to serve “to give visibility to the very specific pain experienced by these children, regardless of their age. We want them to know that their pain matters to us,” Guillén emphasized.
At the same time, the goal is for other dioceses to adopt it as well: “This is not a program we want to implement solely for ourselves. We are part of one Church, and everything we do is for the whole Church,” she concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
A look at Blessed Fulton Sheen’s relics
For Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification in St. Louis, teenager James Fulton Engstrom presented Cardinal Luis Tagle, the main celebrant, with a first-class relic of Sheen: the mandible, the jawbone that forms the chin and lower jawline and is the only moving bone in the human skull.
Engstrom was the recipient of the miracle in 2010 for Sheen’s beatification. Minutes after being born, he was not breathing nor could emergency workers or hospital staff help him. He was dead for 61 minutes — and as doctors were about to record his time of death, James came to life. As the Church has officially proclaimed, through Sheen’s intercession, the baby began breathing and was healed of any abnormalities that could occur in a way medical science could not explain.
The mandible was chosen because of Sheen’s speaking prowess.
“Using the jawbone is very significant because of his ability to communicate the faith,” Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, Sheen’s home diocese, told the National Catholic Register, a sister publication of EWTN News.
“And, of course, his ability to proclaim the faith, to speak out, the faith to preach and to teach” was paramount for Sheen, Tylka, who concelebrated the beatification Mass, said.
“It’s pretty common for the one who was healed, if they’re available, to have some part to play,” Msgr. Jason Gray, the executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation in Peoria, Illinois, told the Register.
Part of preparing for a beatification or canonization is obtaining first-class relics of the new blessed or saint. Msgr. Gray explained how the Diocese of Peoria obtained these first-class relics that are always parts or fragments of the body.
Now-Blessed Fulton Sheen died on Dec. 9, 1979.
“The important thing is to know that he’s been buried for 47 years at this point, and the body does decompose,” Msgr. Gray noted. “In his case, we’re not dealing with an incorrupt body, so after 47 years, essentially, all the soft tissue had decomposed. When we did the actual canonical recognition, which is always done in a very respectful way and following the norms that are laid out by Rome, and we did open the casket, essentially, it was just bones. Pretty much everything else had disintegrated. We were able to take some bone that we could use for first-class relics.”
The diocese received permission from Rome to take something more sizable because Bishop Tylka wanted to make sure that there was a significant relic given to the Archdiocese of New York, where Sheen served as an auxiliary bishop from 1951 until 1966, and to the Diocese of Rochester, New York, where Sheen served from October 1966 to October 1969. “Both [Rochester] Bishop John Bonnici and [New York] Archbishop Ronald Hicks have been very happy to have that news,” Gray said.
Gray described those relics as the longest bones in the palm area of both right and left hands (the second metacarpal bone of the index finger).
“Those are going to be given to Rochester and New York,” he said. “They will have a significant relic.”
Tylka explained that they were “taking the relics from particularly his right hand because he was right-handed. It was always an iconic image of him writing, especially the ‘JMJ’ on the blackboard as part of his" “Life Is Worth Living” television program. It seems a significant opportunity to use bones from his right hand. That was such a familiar and iconic image of him that so many people knew.”
“The reality is that although Fulton Sheen was a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, his episcopal ministry and much of his life centered around being in New York,” noted Tylka to the Register.
“And, of course, he was the diocesan bishop of Rochester. So it seems important to me that those two dioceses, in particular the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rochester, each have a significant relic for their use and veneration in the diocese. And knowing that they’ve been supportive of our efforts to move the beatification forward and the cause of Fulton Sheen, I just thought it would be an important gesture that I, myself, as the bishop, would go and present those relics.”
Tylka will personally present the relics to Bishop Bonnici in Rochester next Tuesday and to Archbishop Hicks in New York next Thursday.
“Each of those dioceses are planning celebrations on those days,” he said. “They both have great devotion and support of the cause for Fulton Sheen, so they’ll be the first two dioceses to receive a relic, a substantial relic,” Tylka explained.
He elaborated on the particular choice of relics for these two dioceses. “Knowing that Fulton Sheen was so demonstrative in not only writing ‘JMJ,’ but often he would make his gesture pointing up to heaven, each of them will receive a bone from his hand. One gets the left and one gets the right.”
In addition to these bones, Msgr. Gray explained another longer bone was also taken to prepare small relics. Each will be in a theca (small round reliquary) in which a tiny chip of bone is placed with the inscription ex ossibus Beati Fultoni Sheen — from “the bones of Blessed Fulton Sheen.” None could be distributed until Sept. 24.
Gray clarified these relics are not for private collections but meant for public veneration. Requests from Catholic institutions such as a parish, seminary, religious house, convent or shrine must include a testimonial letter from a diocesan bishop.
“We need to know that this is a legitimate request from an institution that will respectfully preserve the relic and that it is meant to be made available for veneration by the faithful,” he said.
Second-class relics — an item the blessed or saint owned, wore or touched, such as a shirt or book or pieces of these — are available from the foundation, which has a number of Sheen’s vestments (ex indumentis, “from the clothing”). Such second-class relics can be given to private individuals.
“That’s perfectly fine,” Gray said. “We just ask people to make some sort of a donation because it takes us time to prepare these things — either a relic card, where we actually tape the fragment of vestment inside a holy card; or if people have contributed and been more generous, we’ve prepared an actual theca with a fragment of cloth in it from the vestments of Fulton Sheen.”
“We have an ample supply, so there’s no difficulty in honoring that,” he said. Because of the many requests the foundation receives, “we do ask people to be a little patient because we’re trying to fulfill them as best we can.” (People may make requests and include a donation by mail to the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, 419 NE Madison Ave., Peoria, IL, 61603, or via the website CelebrateSheen.com.)
There are also third-class relics — items like holy cards, religious medals and rosaries that have been touched to a first-class relic.
“Right now, the principal means of creating a third-class is by touching something to the tomb,” explained Msgr. Gray of the current resting place of Bishop Sheen’s mortal remains in a side chapel at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria. “The tomb itself is a first-class relic.” People touch their “rosaries and holy cards all the time when they come to Peoria and make a visit in front of the tomb.”
During the beatification at St. Louis’ The Dome at America’s Center, more than one first-class relic was available for the faithful to venerate.
Another major relic will also travel to Rome — and will be presented to Pope Leo XIV. “That is planned,” Tylka confirmed to the Register. “I’ve received confirmation that I will be given an audience to do so on Oct. 5.”
Because Leo grew up only about 168 miles from Peoria, he might have visited Bishop Sheen’s home diocese and cathedral church growing up.
“Quite possibly,” said Tylka. “He grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, as I did. And certainly, as an Augustinian, we did have a parish where the Augustinians were serving for a part of some time. So it’s very likely that he probably could have come down for a visit.”
This article was first published by the National Catholic Register, an EWTN News sister publication, and has been adapted for EWTN News English.
Duluth Diocese officially begins canonization cause for Minnesota priest Joseph Buh
The Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota officially launched a formal canonization cause for the 19th century Slovenian-born missionary priest, Monsignor Joseph Buh, who now holds the title of “servant of God” in the Catholic Church.
“It is humbling to know that we stand in a moment of history that the Holy Spirit has chosen to be able to bring forth Monsignor Joseph Buh, not only for days past, but for the present moment, as we are experiencing once again a Catholic revival in the Diocese of Duluth,” Bishop Daniel Felton said at the opening of the Sept. 22 Mass for Buh’s cause for canonization.
Felton celebrated the Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth. He was joined by a representative of the Slovenian government, a representative of the Catholic Church in Slovenia, representatives for local indigenous communities, and representatives of the Slovenian American community.
A person’s official cause for canonization typically begins at the local level, with the diocesan bishop launching the investigation. In June, Felton consulted with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which voted to support Felton’s inquiry into Buh’s cause.
Buh, who was born in 1833 and died in 1922, ministered to poor immigrants and indigenous people, including the Ojibwe, and helped establish more than 50 parishes in the area. If Buh were canonized, he would be the first saint from Minnesota.
“As Monsignor Buh is with us, he would be the first one to say, ‘this isn’t about me — it’s about the way that God chose me to bring the healing, to bring the hope, to bring the joy of Jesus to others,’” Felton said. “And so we too acknowledge tonight, it’s not about us. It’s all about Jesus.”
In his homily, Felton said there is no better description of Buh than “servant of God,” which now is his official title. He said, “that was his one desire, [it] was to be a servant of God.” He said Buh “wanted to be a disciple of Christ, just growing closer to Jesus in all ways.”
Felton referenced the Gospel reading of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and “would carry them to the place that the Holy Spirit desired for them.” He said in the early 1900s, “that same Spirit was hovering over the Diocese of Duluth in a great moment of revival.”
The bishop noted that Buh, when ministering to the indigenous communities and others, would always live with that community and learn the language, “and it was only when he knew that language, the language of the people, that ultimately he would know their hurts and their pains, he would know how they were filled with despair, he would know their tribulations in life.”
“And only when he actually knew that in his heart and he could speak that language of the people, only then secondly, did he always begin to talk about Jesus, to put Jesus on center stage, to say Jesus is healing to your hurts, Jesus is hope to your despair, Jesus is joy to your tribulations,” Felton said.
Now that Buh is a servant of God, the diocese will perform an inquiry into his life and submit its findings to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which will determine whether to move forward with his cause.
PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV visits France’s restored Notre-Dame Cathedral
Pope Leo XIV is visiting three cities in France from Sept. 25–28, making stops in Paris, Lourdes, and Metz to meet with young people, government officials, the sick, and migrants, among others.
On Sept. 25, he celebrated Vespers at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, becoming the first pope to visit the church since it was rebuilt after the devastating 2019 fire.
Pope Leo prays at Notre-Dame Cathedral: ‘where heaven and earth meet’
PARIS — Pope Leo XIV prayed Evening Prayer at Notre-Dame Cathedral on Friday, becoming the first pope to set foot in the monumental church since it was rebuilt after the 2019 fire that ravaged its roof, nave, and spire.
Less than two years after its reopening, Leo reflected on the iconic cathedral, which, “more than any other [place], has invited the people of Paris for centuries to lift their eyes towards heaven.”
“Seven years have passed since the whole world, holding its breath, watched as the cathedral was engulfed in a terrible fire,” he said in his homily. “That pain was felt not only by Catholics, nor only by believers.”
“In that tragic moment we came to realize that Notre-Dame is more than a monument,” the pope said. “The collective effort to rebuild it, and the splendor of the result reveal that the heart of a people beats here, and that here we stand at the living center of a civilization, where past and future embrace, where heaven and earth meet.”
The prayer service at the famous Gothic cathedral was Pope Leo’s first meeting with the Catholic Church of Paris during his Sept. 25-28 visit to France.
Here Leo spoke to the country’s Catholic clergy and religious — the rebuilt church providing a fitting setting for his message that “this Cathedral has been reborn so that you too may be reborn with it in a new impetus towards holiness and daily mission.”
Leo addresses France’s Catholics at a critical juncture in their history, as they welcome rising numbers of converts. This Easter, France recorded more than 20,000 adult and adolescent baptisms, a 20% increase from the already record-high number in 2025, which saw a 45% increase from 2024 figures.
Despite the encouraging trend, the country continues to grow more secular. The latest data on religious identity in France, in 2019-2020, found that 51% of adults in France say they have no religious affiliation, an 8% increase from a decade before. While 29% of the population identifies as Catholic, the survey found only 8% say they go to Church regularly, according to the Institut National D’Etudes Démographiques.
Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened in December 2024, a little over five years after people around the world watched the church’s blaze in horror. Restoration work of the Gothic cathedral continued into 2026.
In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the symbolism of the architecture of the cathedral, the seat of the archbishop of Paris.
“The Cathedral’s cruciform layout, where stone and light come together, evokes the meeting of earth and heaven. It gathers and orders the events of history, woven with human joys and sufferings. It holds them together in a symbolic dynamic that transforms these diverse expressions into a living language, uniting them into a whole,” he said.
Before Evening Prayer, Pope Leo approached the cathedral on foot to greet those gathered outside.
Mariana González, 31, was one of hundreds of people who caught a glimpse of Pope Leo as he arrived for Evening Prayer.
González, who with her husband and 7-month-old girl waited around four hours to see the pope, told EWTN News that “it’s very special for [Pope Leo] to be here, not only to see him but to listen to the message he has for all the French people, those of us living in France and the whole world.” González, who is Colombian-American and lives in Paris, said she believed “his visit will also touch many hearts here and I look forward to seeing all of the fruits his visit will bring.”
Local authorities estimated that 300,000 people lined up to greet Leo outside Notre-Dame and along the two-and-a-half mile road from his previous event at UNESCO headquarters to the cathedral, the Vatican said.
Instagram post
Upon entering the cathedral, the pope visited a chapel to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and then venerated a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The cathedral, which just moments before had erupted into applause and cries of “Pape Léon,” was silent.
After putting on vestments for the prayer, Leo approached the altar to the dramatic tones of the cathedral’s grand organ, the largest pipe organ in France.
“We must not forget that this Cathedral, like every other church, was built for the purpose of prayer and the worship of God,” the pope recalled in his homily. “This Cathedral is not merely a stone structure to be admired; instead, it lives by the sacred mystery celebrated within it. Without the liturgy, it would lose its soul.”
He encouraged priests and consecrated men and women to never neglect their friendship with Christ, to nurture their interior lives and spend time in personal, silent prayer.
“Your mission flows above all from this intimate relationship with the Lord, who awaits you there,” he said.
Reflecting on the cathedral’s purpose of prayer and the worship of God, Leo said, “Today, more than ever, we live in an age that seems deprived of fullness, depth and promise. The noble simplicity of song, spoken word and liturgical gesture can be for many a glimmer of hope, an oasis of peace in a hyper-connected and noisy society, where we can experience the presence of the Author of the greatest love.”
In his message of welcome to Leo, Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich said, “Just over a year ago, when I took the liberty of inviting you to Paris, you told me that you wanted to see Notre-Dame! … You have come as a pilgrim among all these visitors.”
Pope Leo XIV warns of ’corruption of culture’ in the age of AI
PARIS — Pope Leo XIV warned that Artificial Intelligence has fostered a “corruption of culture” that could affect what it means to be human, during a speech at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday.
The pontiff visited the headquarters of UNESCO — a specialized UN agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights — on the first day of a Sept. 25-28 journey to France.
“A fundamental question deserves to be explored, one that urgently calls for a response: What does it mean to be human?” Leo said in a speech delivered half in French and half in English.
“Every culture is challenged by this question, which lies at the heart of every form of knowledge, every art and every religion. Even in the twenty-first century, after all, we cannot take for granted that we know who the human person is or what it means to live as a human being,” the pontiff said.
He contrasted the domination and confusion of the Tower of Babel, to which he has previously likened AI, with the peace and unity found at Pentecost.
“The corruption of culture which we are considering finds its redemption in the public square of Pentecost,” he said. “There, a message of peace is received as good news by people of every nation. This message proclaims the resurrection of Jesus, that is, the victory of life over death and the salvation that gives hope to the world.”
Leo also spoke about the development of communications and the risk of spreading false information, and “words devoid of meaning,” thereby “hindering dialogue rather than fostering it.”
“Artificial intelligence amplifies this problem,” he continued. “Although such systems can correlate data, they cannot answer questions that concern the meaning of human life, which is rooted in lived experience.”
He condemned oppressive power, pride, injustice, and conflict.
“Science itself, when reduced to a technique of power, no longer serves to elevate the human person, but instead risks degrading the fruits of human endeavor,” he said.
The pontiff devoted significant portions of his speech to underlining the care due to every human life, especially the most vulnerable, such as “children in their mothers’ wombs and in the various theaters of war, persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and all those arrogantly excluded as unproductive.”
They are the true test of our claims to respect human dignity, and their protection and promotion extend also to creation,” he said.
On technological advancements, the Holy Father said, “the paradox has become increasingly evident: while ‘intelligence’ is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognize the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded.”
Pope Leo’s arrival at UNESCO was met by a warm applause from the audience.
Before his address, the pope was given a brief tour of the headquarters, including the library, which houses UNESCO’s diplomatic archives. Leo also received a loud applause when he watered an olive tree as a sign of nurturing peace.
He was also given a copy of the Book of Peace Memorandum, an archival document submitted to the 4th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 1949 to support its mission to prevent global conflicts after World War II.
Leo underlined that he was visiting UNESCO, “as a pastor, to speak to you on behalf of the Church, which continually seeks to enter into dialogue and has a message to share with every people, with all women and men of good will,” and praised the agency’s mission to build a just world and favor authentic human development
Citing his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he said the Holy See looks “upon this Organization as a privileged partner in the service of the common good, which is the ‘social expression of the dignity’ shared by all of us from the very beginning and in equal measure.”
The pope emphasized the importance of truth, without which language becomes subject to violence and power, and noted that “corruption of the law begins with the corruption of the heart.”
Churchgoing Catholic couples trend the happiest, report finds
Amid a loneliness epidemic, recent research shows faith and family are “antidotes to isolation.”
A report published by Institute for Family Studies on Sept. 25 found that churchgoing Catholic couples are happier than other couples. In fact, happiness more than doubled among spouses who attend church compared with their peers.
Among the report’s most notable findings is that despite cultural challenges to faith and a decline in marriage, people who attend church consistently report higher levels of happiness and their marriages are strong.
The report drew on data from the General Social Survey (GSS), CARA data, YouGov, Pew Research, and other sources.
Report co-author Brad Wilcox, senior fellow and director of the Get Married Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, noted that “churchgoing Catholics and Protestants marry more, have more children, and divorce less than their secular peers.”
“The good news in the report is that the happiest and most sexually satisfied husbands and wives are churchgoing Catholics,” Wilcox told EWTN News. “For instance, 79% of churchgoing Catholics and 74% of churchgoing Protestants are very happily married, compared to 66% of nonreligious husbands and wives.”
“Among churchgoers, 55% of Catholics and 45% of Protestants report being satisfied with their sex lives. (i.e., rating one’s sex life as “excellent” or “very good”), compared to just 45% of nominal Catholics, 35% of nominal Protestants, and 40% of Nones,” Wilcox said.
Also, churchgoers are 39% more likely to be married than their peers, the report found.
“Men and women tethered to the institutions of faith and marriage are more than twice as likely to be very happy today compared to their peers who are not,” read the report, authored by Wilcox along with Grant Bailey, Richard Dell’Isola, and Jane Lankes Smith.
“There’s a ‘faith-family paradox’ where the role of faith, marriage, and family life has shrunk since the 1970s (with Catholic weddings falling by 74% since 1970 to the present),” Wilcox said. “But the believers who remain are more likely to enjoy strong, stable families.”
Belief in the teachings of the Church makes a difference in marital happiness, the study found.
“Couples who embrace classic Catholic teachings about marital permanence and openness to life are most likely to be happily married and sexually satisfied,” Wilcox continued.
The report found that churchgoing couples have "significantly more sex, and more sexual satisfaction, than their secular peers,” the report read.
“Catholics and Protestants who believe marriage is a permanent commitment are more likely to be sexually satisfied than their counterparts who do not hold this view (60% versus 46% for Catholics, with a smaller 43% versus 40% difference among Protestants),” Wilcox said.
Given what the data showed, the authors of the report called for greater attention to faith and family.
“Strengthening faith and family is therefore not a matter of nostalgia but of necessity: it could mean the difference between a society that sustains the foundations of personal and social well-being and one that leaves its people to drift alone and unhappy,” the report read.
But the report also shed light on problems in churchgoing couples and families, like pornography consumption and lack of community support for big families.
“It’s not all good news,” Wilcox said. “Men who are struggling with pornography are more likely to get into trouble in their marriages.”
Churchgoing husbands still view porn at similar rates to their secular counterparts (a quarter of religious husbands compared with one-third of nonreligious husbands).
In addition, a significant minority of Catholic spouses “worry their marriage may not last.”
Catholic parents of families of three or more children reported lower happiness in their marriage. The report cited a lack of community support as a major reason.
“Catholic parents of large families (three or more children) report lower marital happiness, in part, we think, because they don’t get enough support from their local church communities,” Wilcox said. “Unfortunately, only 46% of churchgoing Catholic parents report receiving even ‘some help’ from their church community.”
The report, which was commissioned by the Catholic group FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students), also compared the data with a group of 1,219 respondents who were FOCUS alumni. This group was more likely to get married and to be happily married than other Catholic couples, while also less likely to be sexually satisfied than other Catholic couples.
The authors recommend in the report an active faith life, intentional marital discernment, family support at the parish level, and marriage formation for adolescents and young adults.
“In an age marked by unprecedented digital distraction and loneliness, the value of faith and family is powerful and may well be growing,” the report concluded.
Pope Leo XIV, in France, says protection of life a duty for everyone
PARIS – Pope Leo XIV, in his first speech during a four-day visit to France, lamented the use of science and technology for profit instead of moral and ethical human progress and said that everyone is responsible for the protection of life.
Addressing French President Emmanuel Macron and other government members at the Élysée Palace, the head of state’s official residence, on Sept. 25, the pontiff said he was concerned “by those trends in society that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death.”
“Let us not forget that mutual respect and the protection of every human life is a duty incumbent upon each and every one of us,” he said.
End-of-life questions are among the most sensitive issues the pope is expected to address while in France Sept. 25-28. France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.
Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It differs from assisted dying, in which the patient takes life-ending drugs himself, under a physician’s guidance. Both practices are prohibited by Catholic teaching.
The duty to protect and respect life, Leo continued, is “an expression of the authentic ‘secularity’ (laïcité) of the earthly city” since a “Christian engaged in public service and guided by the light of his or her conscience illumined by faith, cannot be considered a proselytizer or a threat to the unity of the nation.”
Laïcité is a legal principle strictly separating Church and state in France.
Leo urged the country’s political, civil and cultural leaders, as well as French and foreign diplomats, to see that “an authentic secularity” does not exclude religion but values it as an educational resource.
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Leo echoed a 2018 speech by Macron, in which the president told the French bishops that “a Church that claims to be uninterested in temporal matters would not be fulfilling her vocation; and that a President of the Republic who claims to be uninterested in the Church and in Catholics would be failing in his duty.”
“An authentic secularity, then, consists not in excluding religion from the public sphere or from education, but in striving to ensure that the State and religious institutions maintain dialogue and join forces in the service of the common good, that the world may have life,” the pope said.
Speaking before the pope, Macron said that “it is precisely because France is a homeland of freedom and intellect that it is diverse. It is a nation that nurtures a particular passion for constant debate. One must understand it in this way in order truly to love it.” The two leaders met privately for 50 minutes before delivering their speeches.
Leo noted France’s “deep Christian roots” but also praised the French national motto of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” as a set of “ethical imperatives” and guides to follow as technology — including artificial intelligence — advances.
He cited the French Catholic author Georges Bernanos, who “saw the threat that blind obedience and irresponsibility could lead to a ‘Paradise of Machines,’ and pointed out that French civilization had instead sought for centuries to form free men and women who are fully responsible for their actions.”
The pope, who earlier in the day told reporters accompanying him on the flight from Rome that he was traveling to France “as a follower of Jesus Christ who wants to bring peace of Christ throughout the world,” called in his speech for a ban on nuclear weapons and lamented war in the Middle East.
Also present for the pope’s address were firemen who responded to the 2019 fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral and artisans and architects who worked on the landmark’s subsequent restoration. The pope celebrated that undertaking, which he said “showed that something considered irreparably destroyed can be reborn through mutual cooperation.”
Pope Leo XIV landed in Paris on Friday for a four-day visit to France that began with a packed first day with stops at UNESCO headquarters, Notre-Dame, and the French national stadium for a prayer vigil with 80,000 young people. Leo is the first pope to visit Paris since Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.
Curious Parisians stopped what they were doing to watch the pope pass by in a car on his way from the airport to the center of Paris.
After a break for lunch, the Holy Father will visit the headquarters of UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — a specialized UN agency that preserves cultural heritage sites and promotes peace, sustainable development, and human rights.
His journey will also bring him to the towns of Lourdes and Metz, before returning to Rome Sept. 28.