Pope Leo XIV will use his first visit to France as pontiff to underscore solidarity with eastern Christian communities, including those in the Arab world, during a four-day apostolic journey beginning in Paris on Friday.

The Pope is due to pray at Notre-Dame Cathedral on September 25, where a chapel dedicated to eastern Christians has become a visible symbol of links between western Catholicism and ancient churches rooted across the Middle East, Armenia, Ethiopia and India. He is also expected to greet representatives of eastern churches in France after presiding at vespers in the restored cathedral.

Monsignor Hugues de Woillemont, director of L’Oeuvre d’Orient, said the visit to the chapel would be a significant moment for communities whose numbers have fallen sharply in parts of the Middle East after years of war, displacement, economic crisis and emigration. He said the presence of Christians remained important not only for religious reasons but because they formed part of the history of the countries in which they live.

The chapel, formerly dedicated solely to St George, was formally inaugurated in May 2025 as part of Notre-Dame’s renewed interior after the 2019 fire. Eight icons represent founders or defining figures of eastern Christian traditions associated with Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, India, Ethiopia and Armenia. Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich requested the space as a place of prayer and as a sign of the Catholic Church’s universality.

Leo’s emphasis on eastern Christianity follows his first international apostolic journey, to Türkiye and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2, 2025. Türkiye was the first country on that trip, while Lebanon was the second. During the Lebanese leg, Leo met Catholic patriarchs, clergy and young people, attended an ecumenical and interreligious gathering in Beirut and prayed at the tomb of St Charbel in Annaya.

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, he described the country’s churches as an image of Christ’s call to peacemaking. Lebanon has one of the largest proportions of Christians in the Middle East and retains a political system in which the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country’s power-sharing arrangements.

John Paul II reinforced the Vatican’s attachment to Lebanon during his 1997 visit, describing the country as a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for East and West. That legacy remains central to Catholic engagement with the region, where churches trace their origins to Christianity’s earliest centuries. France, which has longstanding ties with several eastern Christian communities, has also maintained diplomatic programmes supporting schools, heritage sites and vulnerable minorities across parts of the Middle East amid political instability, conflict, displacement and sustained economic pressures.

The French visit, running from September 25 to 28, will also place the Pope at the centre of debates extending well beyond church affairs. He is scheduled to meet President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, address civil society and the diplomatic corps, and speak at the headquarters of UNESCO before travelling through Paris.

His programme also includes a youth prayer vigil at the Stade de France, an outdoor Mass in the capital, and a visit to Lourdes, where he is expected to meet survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. The French Catholic Church continues to face demands for accountability after an independent commission estimated in 2021 that about 330,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse by priests, religious personnel or lay people working in church settings over seven decades.

The journey will end in Metz, where Leo is scheduled to speak on peace, European unity and the continent’s responsibilities amid continuing wars and geopolitical strain. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni has said the broader visit will focus on faith, culture and Europe, with meetings spanning church, political and international institutions.

Pope Leo XIV will use his first visit to France as pontiff to underscore solidarity with eastern Christian communities, including those in the Arab world, during a four-day apostolic journey beginning in Paris on Friday.

The Pope is due to pray at Notre-Dame Cathedral on September 25, where a chapel dedicated to eastern Christians has become a visible symbol of links between western Catholicism and ancient churches rooted across the Middle East, Armenia, Ethiopia and India. He is also expected to greet representatives of eastern churches in France after presiding at vespers in the restored cathedral.

Monsignor Hugues de Woillemont, director of L’Oeuvre d’Orient, said the visit to the chapel would be a significant moment for communities whose numbers have fallen sharply in parts of the Middle East after years of war, displacement, economic crisis and emigration. He said the presence of Christians remained important not only for religious reasons but because they formed part of the history of the countries in which they live.

The chapel, formerly dedicated solely to St George, was formally inaugurated in May 2025 as part of Notre-Dame’s renewed interior after the 2019 fire. Eight icons represent founders or defining figures of eastern Christian traditions associated with Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, India, Ethiopia and Armenia. Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich requested the space as a place of prayer and as a sign of the Catholic Church’s universality.

Leo’s emphasis on eastern Christianity follows his first international apostolic journey, to Türkiye and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2, 2025. Türkiye was the first country on that trip, while Lebanon was the second. During the Lebanese leg, Leo met Catholic patriarchs, clergy and young people, attended an ecumenical and interreligious gathering in Beirut and prayed at the tomb of St Charbel in Annaya.

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, he described the country’s churches as an image of Christ’s call to peacemaking. Lebanon has one of the largest proportions of Christians in the Middle East and retains a political system in which the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country’s power-sharing arrangements.

John Paul II reinforced the Vatican’s attachment to Lebanon during his 1997 visit, describing the country as a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for East and West. That legacy remains central to Catholic engagement with the region, where churches trace their origins to Christianity’s earliest centuries. France, which has longstanding ties with several eastern Christian communities, has also maintained diplomatic programmes supporting schools, heritage sites and vulnerable minorities across parts of the Middle East amid political instability, conflict, displacement and sustained economic pressures.

The French visit, running from September 25 to 28, will also place the Pope at the centre of debates extending well beyond church affairs. He is scheduled to meet President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, address civil society and the diplomatic corps, and speak at the headquarters of UNESCO before travelling through Paris.

His programme also includes a youth prayer vigil at the Stade de France, an outdoor Mass in the capital, and a visit to Lourdes, where he is expected to meet survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. The French Catholic Church continues to face demands for accountability after an independent commission estimated in 2021 that about 330,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse by priests, religious personnel or lay people working in church settings over seven decades.

The journey will end in Metz, where Leo is scheduled to speak on peace, European unity and the continent’s responsibilities amid continuing wars and geopolitical strain. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni has said the broader visit will focus on faith, culture and Europe, with meetings spanning church, political and international institutions.

Pope Leo XIV will use his first visit to France as pontiff to underscore solidarity with eastern Christian communities, including those in the Arab world, during a four-day apostolic journey beginning in Paris on Friday.

The Pope is due to pray at Notre-Dame Cathedral on September 25, where a chapel dedicated to eastern Christians has become a visible symbol of links between western Catholicism and ancient churches rooted across the Middle East, Armenia, Ethiopia and India. He is also expected to greet representatives of eastern churches in France after presiding at vespers in the restored cathedral.

Monsignor Hugues de Woillemont, director of L’Oeuvre d’Orient, said the visit to the chapel would be a significant moment for communities whose numbers have fallen sharply in parts of the Middle East after years of war, displacement, economic crisis and emigration. He said the presence of Christians remained important not only for religious reasons but because they formed part of the history of the countries in which they live.

The chapel, formerly dedicated solely to St George, was formally inaugurated in May 2025 as part of Notre-Dame’s renewed interior after the 2019 fire. Eight icons represent founders or defining figures of eastern Christian traditions associated with Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, India, Ethiopia and Armenia. Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich requested the space as a place of prayer and as a sign of the Catholic Church’s universality.

Leo’s emphasis on eastern Christianity follows his first international apostolic journey, to Türkiye and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2, 2025. Türkiye was the first country on that trip, while Lebanon was the second. During the Lebanese leg, Leo met Catholic patriarchs, clergy and young people, attended an ecumenical and interreligious gathering in Beirut and prayed at the tomb of St Charbel in Annaya.

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, he described the country’s churches as an image of Christ’s call to peacemaking. Lebanon has one of the largest proportions of Christians in the Middle East and retains a political system in which the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country’s power-sharing arrangements.

John Paul II reinforced the Vatican’s attachment to Lebanon during his 1997 visit, describing the country as a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for East and West. That legacy remains central to Catholic engagement with the region, where churches trace their origins to Christianity’s earliest centuries. France, which has longstanding ties with several eastern Christian communities, has also maintained diplomatic programmes supporting schools, heritage sites and vulnerable minorities across parts of the Middle East amid political instability, conflict, displacement and sustained economic pressures.

The French visit, running from September 25 to 28, will also place the Pope at the centre of debates extending well beyond church affairs. He is scheduled to meet President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, address civil society and the diplomatic corps, and speak at the headquarters of UNESCO before travelling through Paris.

His programme also includes a youth prayer vigil at the Stade de France, an outdoor Mass in the capital, and a visit to Lourdes, where he is expected to meet survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. The French Catholic Church continues to face demands for accountability after an independent commission estimated in 2021 that about 330,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse by priests, religious personnel or lay people working in church settings over seven decades.

The journey will end in Metz, where Leo is scheduled to speak on peace, European unity and the continent’s responsibilities amid continuing wars and geopolitical strain. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni has said the broader visit will focus on faith, culture and Europe, with meetings spanning church, political and international institutions.

Pope Leo XIV will use his first visit to France as pontiff to underscore solidarity with eastern Christian communities, including those in the Arab world, during a four-day apostolic journey beginning in Paris on Friday.

The Pope is due to pray at Notre-Dame Cathedral on September 25, where a chapel dedicated to eastern Christians has become a visible symbol of links between western Catholicism and ancient churches rooted across the Middle East, Armenia, Ethiopia and India. He is also expected to greet representatives of eastern churches in France after presiding at vespers in the restored cathedral.

Monsignor Hugues de Woillemont, director of L’Oeuvre d’Orient, said the visit to the chapel would be a significant moment for communities whose numbers have fallen sharply in parts of the Middle East after years of war, displacement, economic crisis and emigration. He said the presence of Christians remained important not only for religious reasons but because they formed part of the history of the countries in which they live.

The chapel, formerly dedicated solely to St George, was formally inaugurated in May 2025 as part of Notre-Dame’s renewed interior after the 2019 fire. Eight icons represent founders or defining figures of eastern Christian traditions associated with Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, India, Ethiopia and Armenia. Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich requested the space as a place of prayer and as a sign of the Catholic Church’s universality.

Leo’s emphasis on eastern Christianity follows his first international apostolic journey, to Türkiye and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2, 2025. Türkiye was the first country on that trip, while Lebanon was the second. During the Lebanese leg, Leo met Catholic patriarchs, clergy and young people, attended an ecumenical and interreligious gathering in Beirut and prayed at the tomb of St Charbel in Annaya.

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, he described the country’s churches as an image of Christ’s call to peacemaking. Lebanon has one of the largest proportions of Christians in the Middle East and retains a political system in which the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country’s power-sharing arrangements.

John Paul II reinforced the Vatican’s attachment to Lebanon during his 1997 visit, describing the country as a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for East and West. That legacy remains central to Catholic engagement with the region, where churches trace their origins to Christianity’s earliest centuries. France, which has longstanding ties with several eastern Christian communities, has also maintained diplomatic programmes supporting schools, heritage sites and vulnerable minorities across parts of the Middle East amid political instability, conflict, displacement and sustained economic pressures.

The French visit, running from September 25 to 28, will also place the Pope at the centre of debates extending well beyond church affairs. He is scheduled to meet President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, address civil society and the diplomatic corps, and speak at the headquarters of UNESCO before travelling through Paris.

His programme also includes a youth prayer vigil at the Stade de France, an outdoor Mass in the capital, and a visit to Lourdes, where he is expected to meet survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. The French Catholic Church continues to face demands for accountability after an independent commission estimated in 2021 that about 330,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse by priests, religious personnel or lay people working in church settings over seven decades.

The journey will end in Metz, where Leo is scheduled to speak on peace, European unity and the continent’s responsibilities amid continuing wars and geopolitical strain. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni has said the broader visit will focus on faith, culture and Europe, with meetings spanning church, political and international institutions.