Pope Leo XIV Begins Four-Day Visit to Secular France

Pope Leo XIV has started a four-day visit to France, a country often described as secular but historically regarded as one of the original heartlands of Roman Catholicism. The trip follows a recent papal visit to Africa, and together the two journeys point to Leo XIV's effort to reach out to different parts of the global Catholic community.

Two Different Audiences

The France visit symbolically represents Catholicism's older, traditional home in Europe, a region where the church once held major influence but where society today is widely seen as secular. The earlier Africa trip, by contrast, represents regions that are increasingly becoming new strongholds of the faith, as the number of believers there continues to grow.

The sequence of these trips — first Africa, then France — suggests the pope is trying to maintain ties with the church's historic roots in Europe while also strengthening relationships with its expanding communities elsewhere in the world. This reflects a broader challenge facing Leo XIV as pope: serving as a spiritual leader for societies where Catholicism's role is diminishing as well as for those where it is growing.

During the visit, the pope is expected to remain in France for four days, though further details about specific events or meeting locations have not yet been disclosed. The trip is seen as part of a wider papal strategy to address multiple audiences within the Catholic Church at once — both those in its historic centers and those representing the church's future growth regions.