French bishops announce the Pope’s visit for September 2026: here’s what we know

(ZENIT News / Paris, 05.08.2026).- France may soon welcome its first full papal state visit in nearly two decades as preparations intensify for a possible apostolic journey by Pope Leo XIV at the end of September 2026. Although the Vatican has not yet issued official confirmation, French bishops have publicly acknowledged that discussions with the Holy See are already well advanced and that a preliminary itinerary has been drafted.

The announcement came on May 6 through a statement from the French Bishops’ Conference, signaling an unusual degree of openness before Rome’s customary formal approval of papal travel plans. In recent months, several episcopal conferences around the world have increasingly anticipated Vatican announcements, reflecting both the intense interest surrounding Leo XIV’s pontificate and the growing diplomatic coordination required for international visits.

According to Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille and president of the French Bishops’ Conference, he has already held several working meetings with the Pope, including one during the previous week in which the framework of the trip was discussed.

The proposed program would include Paris and Lourdes, two locations carrying profound religious and symbolic significance for French Catholicism.

Paris represents not only the political and cultural heart of France, but also a nation wrestling with deep questions about secularism, religious identity, immigration, and the future of Christianity in Western Europe. Lourdes, by contrast, remains one of the world’s most important Catholic pilgrimage destinations since the Marian apparitions reported there in 1858 by Saint Bernadette Soubirous. Every year millions of pilgrims — including the sick, disabled, and elderly — travel to the sanctuary seeking spiritual renewal and healing.

Cardinal Aveline explained that Leo XIV has repeatedly expressed “great esteem” for France and for what he described as the country’s “spiritual history.” The French bishops see the potential visit not merely as a diplomatic event, but as an opportunity for the Pope to encounter a Church navigating profound cultural changes while still preserving a remarkable religious patrimony.

The invitation itself has emerged from both ecclesiastical and political channels. French bishops formally invited the Pope through the apostolic nuncio, while French President Emmanuel Macron personally reiterated the invitation during his meeting with Leo XIV at the Vatican on April 10.

Should the visit proceed, Leo XIV would become the first pope to undertake a formal state visit to France since Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Paris and Lourdes in 2008. Pope Francis visited France several times during his pontificate, but always under more limited frameworks. He traveled to Strasbourg in 2014 to address European institutions, visited Marseille a decade later during a Mediterranean gathering, and later became the first pontiff to visit Corsica. Yet Francis notably avoided what could be considered a full official visit to France itself.

That distinction was not accidental. Francis often sought to emphasize pastoral rather than state-centered travel. During his Marseille journey, he famously remarked, “I am going to Marseille, not to France,” a phrase widely interpreted as reflecting a certain distance from the French political and cultural establishment.

Relations between the Vatican and France during Francis’ pontificate were occasionally strained. One symbolic episode came in 2024, when Francis declined repeated invitations to attend the reopening ceremonies of Notre-Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire.

The atmosphere surrounding Leo XIV appears markedly different.

Since his election in 2025, French Church leaders and civil authorities have actively sought closer engagement with the new Pope, whose background and pastoral style are often viewed as more institutionally collaborative. Vatican sources indicate that discussions surrounding the September visit are already in a significant planning phase, although logistical and diplomatic details still need to be finalized before any official announcement can be made.

The timing itself could carry strategic importance. France remains home to one of Europe’s largest Catholic populations, yet also one of its most secularized societies. Church attendance has declined sharply in recent decades, while debates surrounding religious liberty, secular identity, bioethics, education, and the public role of Christianity continue to shape French political life.

At the same time, France has witnessed renewed interest in Catholicism among certain younger generations, especially through pilgrimages, traditional liturgies, youth movements, and growing participation in Easter baptisms. French dioceses have recently reported notable increases in adult conversions, a phenomenon many bishops describe as unexpected but spiritually significant.

A papal visit to Lourdes could therefore become one of the defining moments of Leo XIV’s early pontificate. The sanctuary has long represented a uniquely Catholic vision of human dignity centered on suffering, compassion, healing, and hope — themes that have figured prominently in Leo XIV’s preaching since his election.

Meanwhile, a stop in Paris would almost certainly place the Pope at the center of broader conversations about Europe’s Christian roots and the future of faith in societies increasingly shaped by secularization and cultural fragmentation.

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