With an upcoming papal trip to Paris and Lourdes, Vatican journalists say Pope Leo XIV will address deep questions on secularization, human dignity, and AI.
Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming trip to France, scheduled for September 25 to 28, has generated enormous media interest across Europe. Organizers have received about 2,500 journalist accreditation requests, and more than 80 journalists will fly on the papal plane. Among them, Vatican correspondents from Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States shared their thoughts with Aleteia about this highly anticipated journey.
“It will be difficult for the French to do as well [as Spain].” Even with the aircraft breakdown that added a unique touch to Pope Leo XIV’s return from Spain on June 12, these words reflect the mindset of many journalists after his incredibly successful tour of Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands. Eva Fernández is a Spanish journalist and Rome correspondent for Spain's COPE radio. In her opinion, it’s no coincidence that he’s visiting both Spain and France in this relatively short time frame. Both of these great Catholic nations in Europe have faced profound secularization for decades. Today, they’re seeing signs of renewal.
“In Spain, the Pope’s visit allowed us to gauge a certain religious searching, which is particularly visible among young people and adults drawing closer to the faith,” Fernández observes. She notes that France is also experiencing “renewed interest in the country’s Christian roots, an increase in the number of catechumens, and a revival of pilgrimages.”
“France is truly a European laboratory,” the Spanish journalist says. Behind the image of a nation deeply attached to secularism, something seems to be shifting. The rise in adult catechumens, youth participation, and the vitality of shrines such as Lourdes paint a more complex picture. “Perhaps this stereotype of ‘secular France’ is ultimately not as simple as we think,” she adds.
The defense of human dignity
The theme of human dignity will certainly be a focal point. France recently passed a law allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia following an intense debate on end-of-life care. Fernández believes it will be particularly interesting to observe how Leo XIV approaches this issue.
She points out that the Church in France seems to have chosen not to adopt a “purely defensive” posture. This could encourage the Holy Father to develop a broader discourse on human life and dignity. This issue will resonate particularly strongly in Lourdes, the second major stop on the French trip. There, the Pontiff will meet with sick and vulnerable people.
The city will also host a particularly sensitive event: a meeting with victims of sexual abuse within the Church. This stop will allow the Pope to assess the progress made by the Church in France in addressing this crisis. Furthermore, it will give the encounter broader international significance. For Iacopo Scaramuzzi, the Vatican correspondent for the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, the work carried out in France could inspire other local churches. He specifically mentions the Italian Church, which he judges to be “a little behind” on this issue.
Scaramuzzi also believes Leo XIV is aware that the fact that Francis never visited Paris “created a certain malaise in the French Church.” Without rejecting his predecessor’s choice to focus on the peripheries, Leo XIV seems to want “to reassure, to comfort, and, to a certain extent, to console” more broadly.
His visit to Notre-Dame Cathedral and his meeting with French authorities represent a return to tradition. “I believe that the fact of going to Paris, to the heart of the capital, to the Élysée Palace, is also a way of reassuring and comforting both the Catholic tradition and the institutional tradition of France,” Scaramuzzi says.
A new look at secularization
However, institutional France is also profoundly secularized. This relationship with secularism is expected to be one of the main themes of the trip. Hendro Munsterman is a Dutch theologian and Vatican correspondent for the Nederlands Dagblad; he says Leo XIV could bring a different perspective to this reality. He believes Pope Francis “had not really been able to get a handle on secularization.” Leo XIV is younger and was educated at American universities, Munsterman points out. Consequently, he might better understand the Western experience of Christianity’s loss of social influence, as well as the different ways to respond to it.
Munsterman describes two trends currently at work within the Church. The first, leaning toward tradition, holds that “it’s enough to be oneself and people will return.” The second believes, on the contrary, “that it’s necessary to adapt to modernity, that we must change our discourse, our way of being, and our identity, because these things no longer fit with the world in which we live.”
The theologian notes that “these two models coexist in the Church, and both models are profoundly Catholic.” He sees this tension as one of the most subtle currents underlying the trip.
A third way between the United States and China
Justin McLellan, an Ecuadorian-American journalist and Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, highlights the geopolitical dimension of the visit. France is seeking to present itself as a power capable of proposing an original path: one that includes the defense of multilateralism and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
“France has somewhat positioned itself as a leader, trying to situate itself outside the dynamic dominated by the United States and China,” McLellan observes. Any remarks from Leo XIV on AI, particularly during his scheduled visit to UNESCO, will therefore be scrutinized well beyond French borders. The American journalist says he’s paying close attention to “the possibility of seeing messages emerge from France specifically addressing Silicon Valley.”
