Pope Leo XIV visits Paris to address artificial intelligence, migration and European peace

Arrival and diplomatic agenda in Paris

Pope Leo XIV arrived in France on Friday, 25 September 2026, marking the first papal visit to Paris since Benedict XVI in 2008. Greeted at Orly airport at 10:00 by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, the American-Peruvian pontiff began a four-day apostolic journey running through 28 September. In his initial address at the Élysée Palace, delivered in French, Leo XIV urged European nations to preserve multilateralism and resist treating armed conflict as inevitable. He also stated that nuclear arsenals do not provide true security, addressing France as the only nuclear power in the European Union.

Ethical limits on artificial intelligence at UNESCO

During a Friday visit to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Leo XIV spoke on the societal consequences of automated computing, arguing that technological development must serve human dignity rather than reduce individuals to measures of efficiency. He warned that naming algorithmic systems intelligence risks obscuring the fundamental human requirement for meaning.

Artificial intelligence aggravates this problem: while these systems are capable of correlating data, they cannot answer questions about the meaning of human existence, which is grounded in lived experience. However, human beings cannot live without meaning. Meaning is the oxygen of the mind.

During the UNESCO appearance, the pontiff watered an olive tree, signed the guest book, and called for international cooperation to preserve culture and education against dehumanization.

Cathedral vespers and street gatherings

Following the UNESCO session, Leo XIV traveled through the French capital by popemobile, with 300,000 people lining the streets leading toward Notre-Dame Cathedral. Inside the restored monument, which suffered severe roof damage in a 2019 fire, he conducted a vespers service before 8,000 clergy, bishops, seminarians, and faithful alongside Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich. Leo XIV presented the cathedral's reconstruction as a model for ecclesiastical renewal, urging the French Church to prioritize missionary conversion and welcome foreigners and marginalized communities.

Migrant advocacy and public mass

On Saturday morning, 26 September, the Pope visited Maison Bakhita, a social integration center in Paris established in 2017 and administered by the Scalabrinian Sisters. He spoke with migrants from Nigeria and Afghanistan, including 35-year-old Afghan tailor Meysam, who arrived in France in 2015, as well as representatives of the disability organization Brazos Abiertos. Evoking the life of Saint Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese slave who became a religious sister, the Pope called on European communities to counter isolation and foster inclusion.

Saint Bakhita invites us to see those who are made invisible, to liberate those whom economy and culture reduce to slavery today, to honor the infinite dignity of every brother and sister.

The migration message followed in-flight statements where Leo XIV classified the ongoing border situation in Ceuta as a grave humanitarian crisis requiring international coordination. His Paris program moved Saturday afternoon to an open-air mass at Place de la Concorde for up to 600,000 people, preceding scheduled travels to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes and Metz.