The program has not yet been made public, but the French bishops have already indicated that the two main stops will be the capital and the Marian shrine.
The Holy See confirmed this Saturday, through a statement by the Director of the Press Office, Matteo Bruni, that Pope Leo XIV will make an apostolic journey to France between 25 and 28 September 2026. It will be the fifth international trip of his pontificate, following visits to Turkey and Lebanon, the Principality of Monaco, Africa and Spain—the latter scheduled for 6–12 June.
“Accepting the invitation of the Head of State and the ecclesiastical authorities of the country, as well as that of the Director-General of UNESCO, the Holy Father Leo XIV will undertake an apostolic journey to France from 25 to 28 September 2026 and will visit the headquarters of that Organization,” Bruni stated in the official note.
An invitation extended by Aveline and backed by Macron
The Vatican announcement comes after several months of discreet work between the French Episcopal Conference and the Roman Curia. The formal invitation was extended by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, president of the French episcopate, in coordination with the Apostolic Nuncio.
It was joined by the explicit support of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, during the private audience he held with the Pope on 10 April at the Apostolic Palace.
Aveline had already announced at the beginning of May, in a statement from the Episcopal Conference itself, that a draft program already existed following several working meetings with the Pontiff himself.
“Leo XIV has expressed, on various occasions, the great esteem he feels for our country and its spiritual history,” the cardinal then stressed, adding that the visit would be an opportunity “to share with the Pope what our Church in France is experiencing and to be encouraged by his word.”
Paris and Lourdes, the planned stops
Although the Holy See has not yet detailed the final agenda, the French bishops took for granted in their previous statements that the main stages of the trip will be Paris and the Marian shrine of Lourdes, one of the main pilgrimage centers of the universal Church.
The presence of the rector of the Lourdes shrines, Father Michel Daubanes, in the delegation that accompanied Macron to the Vatican in April already reinforced this hypothesis.
The visit to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, confirmed by the Holy See itself in Bruni’s statement, revives a papal tradition inaugurated by Saint John Paul II in 1980 and continued by Benedict XVI.
It is, therefore, a gesture with a clear diplomatic dimension, which will place Leo XIV before an international forum to address, in all likelihood, issues of education, culture, religious freedom and dialogue among peoples.
The first state visit to France in almost two decades
Leo XIV’s trip acquires singular historical significance: it will be the first state visit of a Roman Pontiff to France since the one made by Benedict XVI in September 2008, precisely with stops in Paris and Lourdes - the latter on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin to Saint Bernadette.
Pope Francis, during his twelve years of pontificate, traveled three times to French territory - Strasbourg, Marseille and Corsica - but always refused to make a state visit and even declined to attend the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris in December 2024.
The “eldest daughter of the Church” will thus welcome a Pontiff who, according to the French bishops, has repeatedly expressed his affection for the country’s spiritual tradition.
The visit, however, comes at a delicate moment in relations between Rome and Paris, marked by the processing of the law on the end of life - which the Holy See considers a “crime against human life” - recurrent tensions over secularism and the difficult situation of Christians in the Middle East, all issues addressed in the 10 April audience between the Pope and Macron.
The French bishops have asked the faithful to accompany the preparation of the trip with prayer, which comes a year and four months after the election of Robert Francis Prevost to the Chair of Peter.