AL HAYAT - Pope to celebrate giant Paris mass after 'peace' appeal

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics was on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, with his trip stirring enthusiasm and spiritual fervour among the faithful.

Parents arrived with pushchairs or children perched on their shoulders as crowds gathered in central Paris to catch a glimpse of the pontiff on the second day of the first official papal visit to France in nearly two decades.

The pope, 71, was due to lead the faithful in prayer from 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) at Place de la Concorde and along the adjoining Champs-Elysees.

On streets surrounding the Champs-Elysees, dozens of coaches dropped worshippers who had travelled from across France, many holding stools or folding chairs as they settled in for a wait of several hours.

Sylvie Leclerc, a 51-year-old teacher, clutched the Normandy flag.

"It's a big event, we've come to share the Christian fervour," she said.

"You don't hear much from us Catholics, but now we're going to make some noise! But to proclaim love, peace, joy," she added.

- 'Civilisation of love' -

Fifteen-year-old Alix was among teenagers looking forward to the mass.

"We're so lucky to be here," she said, wearing electric blue mascara and glittery cross-shaped earrings.

"Seeing the pope is really something. After all, he's God's representative on Earth."

The first US pontiff was visiting France seven months before voters choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron, with the anti-immigration far right eyeing its best opportunity yet to capture the presidency.

Macron will not attend the mass, but presidential hopefuls including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe have confirmed their attendance.

Earlier in the day, the pope met migrants as he visited Maison Bakhita, an association supporting refugees.

He said it was "possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace."

Dressed in a white cassock, Leo also stressed the "fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love."

The association said the pope's visit sent a "message" ahead of the election.

- 'Saints of France' -

On Friday, an estimated 300,000 people turned out to see the pontiff as he waved from his popemobile on the way to the Notre Dame Cathedral.

"There is a sense of fervour reminiscent of that experienced over 40 years ago with John Paul II," Francois Mabille, director of the Geopolitical Observatory on Religion, told broadcaster RMC.

On Friday, Pope Leo stressed the need for ethics to avoid an AI-driven "paradise of machines" and, as war rages in Ukraine for a fifth year, urged France to remain a "tireless champion of peace".

He also told young adults at a stadium outside the French capital on Friday night that they were the "saints of France."

In a deeply secular country, only around five percent of France's 69 million residents go to Catholic church services regularly, a survey found last year.

But while infant baptisms have declined in recent years, increasing numbers of teenagers and adults are being baptised.

After the mass in Paris, Pope Leo will head to Lourdes, a town in southwestern France where, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a grotto in 1858 to a peasant girl.

In Lourdes on Sunday, he will speak with seven victims of clerical sex abuse.

A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over seven decades.

In recent years, further accusations have emerged against charity icon Abbe Pierre and workers at a Catholic boarding school near Lourdes.

For the last leg of his trip, in Metz on Monday, Leo is expected to deliver a speech about peace in Europe.

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M.Sabhan--al-Hayat