PARIS, September 26 — Pope Leo XIV celebrated an outdoor Mass in central Paris on Sunday, drawing a crowd estimated at 700,000 people, according to event organizers and French news reports. The figure, if confirmed by independent estimates, would place the gathering among the largest religious events in Europe this decade. The Vatican has not yet issued an official crowd estimate.
Organizers said the crowd exceeded expectations. French authorities had prepared a major security operation for the event, with thousands of police and emergency personnel deployed across the city center.
No major incidents were reported during the Mass. The Mass filled the heart of the French capital with pilgrims, tourists and residents, in one of the largest public gatherings in France in recent years. French media reported that some attendees had traveled from neighboring countries including Belgium, Germany and Italy.
A Chicago-born pontiff in a secular republic
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, was elected pope in May 2025, taking the name Leo XIV. He is the first American to lead the Roman Catholic Church and the first pope from the United States in the church’s 2,000-year history. Before his election, he served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
He holds citizenship of the United States, Peru and the Holy See. The event drew attention to the role of religion in French public life, in a country defined by its 1905 law on the separation of church and state.
France has about 68 million people, and roughly half the population identifies as Catholic, though regular church attendance is far lower.
A tradition of large papal gatherings
The Paris Mass follows a tradition of large papal gatherings in France. Pope John Paul II celebrated an outdoor Mass in Paris in 1980 and another in 1997 for World Youth Day, which drew hundreds of thousands. Pope Benedict XVI led a Mass at the Invalides in 2008.
Pope Francis visited Strasbourg in 2014 and Marseille in 2023. Paris, home to the Archdiocese of Paris and landmarks including Notre-Dame Cathedral, has long been a center of Catholic life in Europe.
The pope’s visit to France included meetings with French political leaders and Catholic communities, though the Vatican has not released a full schedule of his trip. Pope Leo XIV has emphasized themes of unity, peace and care for the poor since his election, and his Paris Mass was seen as a continuation of that message. The story continues to develop as official figures and reactions emerge.
What to watch next is whether the Vatican issues its own crowd estimate and whether independent tallies bear out the 700,000 figure reported by organizers and French media.
