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Close to 600,000 sign up for Papal mass in Paris next weekend
First official Papal visit to France since 2008 will see Pope visit three cities
Heightened demand for Pope Leo XIV’s public mass in Paris next weekend means plans are underway to enlarge the area where the event will take place.
“Nearly 600,000” people have asked to attend the event, said Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich in a statement on Wednesday (September 16).
The public mass will take place at the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées on Saturday, September 26, however “the Diocese of Paris is organising an overflow area at Place de l’Étoile and along Avenue de la Grande-Armée,” in light of the additional demand.
It will also benefit from additional security protection, as will the main zone.
This spectating zone will form “a single three-kilometre stretch,” leading up to Porte Maillot although this area itself is not in the perimeter.
Registration for the event closed yesterday (September 16) at 18:00 in light of the demand, the Archbishop added.
Plans are already well underway, the Archbishop added, with construction of a temporary altar in Place de la Concorde.
Masses in Lourdes and Metz planned
The public mass in the French capital will form a major part of the Pope’s first official visit to France.
He will be in Paris from September 25 - 26, with the mass itself conducted at 15:00 before he heads to the popular pilgrimage site of Lourdes.
A Sunday mass in Lourdes is also expected to be attended by 150,000 people.
The state visit – the first of its kind by a pope since Benedict XVI in 2008 – will see the Pope visit UNESCO headquarters, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Stade de France (for a youth vigil attended by 80,000 registered participants) and the Place de la Concorde, as well as Lourdes (September 27) and Metz (September 28).
At the latter, he will give a mass to 40,000 spectators who have already signed up to see the event.
