By Joshua McElwee and Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Throngs of people gathered on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris on Saturday as Pope Leo arrived for the biggest event of his weekend visit to France, an outdoor Mass drawing an estimated 700,000 people.
Crowds stretched 2.2 km (1.4 miles) across central Paris from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, waving white and yellow flags and pressing against security barriers for a glimpse of the pontiff.
Chants of “Leo, Leo” and “Long live the Pope” echoed down the tree-lined boulevard as the pope was driven by in an open-top popemobile. The vehicle paused frequently, with Leo blessing babies, children and people with disabilities passed forward by volunteers.
Geraldine Pambou, 42, among those greeting the first US pope, said she hoped he would speak out again for peace. Leo drew a rebuke from US President Donald Trump this year for criticising the Iran war.
“The most important thing is that he emphasises world peace,” she said. “There are too many wars.”
More than 600,000 people had registered to attend the mid-afternoon mass, and the Vatican estimated around 700,000 had turned out.
Leo is on a whirlwind four-day, three-city visit to France, where he is seeking to repair the Church’s standing after abuse scandals caused nationwide shock.
The pope, who has forcefully decried the direction of global leadership in recent months, warned in a speech on Friday at the Paris headquarters of the UN culture and education body, UNESCO, that the UN and other multilateral groups were in crisis.
He also repeated his frequent appeal for the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence, telling French leaders that AI could create a future where “a paradise of machines” takes control of the Earth.
Pierre-Marie Estienne, 36, was also in the crowd waiting for Leo’s Mass in central Paris with his wife and their four young children.
“We live in an era of great materialism,” he said. “There is a lot of evil around us, so we need a message of hope and love.”
POPE VISITS NEWLY BAPTISED CATHOLICS
France, a secular nation where the separation of church and state is enshrined in a 1905 law, has witnessed a steady decline in affiliation to the Catholic Church since World War Two, mirroring a trend in other traditionally Catholic countries.
Although the French Bishops’ Conference points to an increase in baptisms of adults, including a record 21,000 last Easter, a report published by the official statistics agency, INSEE, showed that only 25% of French 18-to-49-year-olds identified as Catholic, compared with 43% a decade earlier.
In a visit on Saturday with newly baptised Catholics at the Catholic University of Paris, Leo urged the French church not to be “naively optimistic” about the recent increase in adherents.
“We must recognise, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid the thorns,” he said.
Leo heads later on Saturday to Lourdes, home to a Catholic shrine. He will meet seven French victims of abuse by clergy there on Sunday.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Elizabeth Pineau; additional reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Alex Richardson and Timothy Heritage)
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