Here’s a preview of Pope Leo XIV’s historic one-day trip to Monaco

ROME (OSV News) — The Vatican has released the schedule for Pope Leo XIV’s day trip to Monaco, the first papal visit to the Catholic principality in the modern era.

On Saturday, March 28, the pope will travel by helicopter directly from Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, to Monaco, the world’s second smallest. The one-day trip will be Pope Leo’s first international journey of 2026 and only the second of his pontificate, and it carries a packed itinerary.

The day will begin with an official welcome ceremony outside the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, followed by a private meeting inside with Prince Albert II, who has reigned over the principality since 2005. The two leaders previously met at the Vatican Jan. 17, when their discussions centered on shared commitments to environmental stewardship, humanitarian aid and the defense of human dignity.

The Diocese of Monaco has noted that the pope and the prince share “a particular focus on respect for human life from its beginning to its end; concern for integral ecology and the preservation of our ‘common home’; and also a shared passion for sport.”

In November, Prince Albert II, who is a former Olympic athlete in bobsled, rejected a bill that aimed to authorize abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in the Catholic principality. Roman Catholicism is Monaco’s official state religion, with 82 percent of the population identifying as Catholic, according to Vatican statistics.

From the palace, the pope will travel to the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate to address Monaco’s Catholic community. Consecrated in 1911 on the site of the principality’s first parish church built in 1252, the cathedral holds a storied place in Monegasque history containing the tombs of Monaco’s royal family, including that of Princess Grace Kelly, who was married in the cathedral in 1956.

Pope Leo XIV will then meet with Catholic youth and catechumens at the Sainte-Dévote Chapel, a centuries-old church dedicated to St. Devota, the patron saint of Monaco and a martyr killed during the persecutions of the Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. The chapel, a beloved local site of popular devotion, also lends its name to the first corner of the famous motor racing circuit of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.

This year, the principality’s diocese has 70 catechumens, mostly young men and women, who are following a formation program preparing them to receive the sacraments of baptism, confession, first Communion, and confirmation in Monaco, according to Abbé Christian Venard, vicar episcopal for communications for the archdiocese.

The day will conclude with a Mass at the Louis II Stadium, home of AS Monaco football club with a capacity of more than 18,000 people, before the pope returns to Vatican City by helicopter, scheduled to land at 7:45 p.m. The pope will return to the Vatican just in time for the start of Holy Week, as Palm Sunday is the following day with Pope Leo presiding over Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

Because the pope is traveling by helicopter rather than by plane, there will be no in-flight press conference with journalists at the conclusion of the trip as is routine on the papal plane.

The official motto chosen for the papal visit is “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” drawn from John 14:6.

The visit comes as Monaco’s Church faces some of the same pastoral challenges seen across Europe. Despite Catholicism’s privileged constitutional status, the diocese has experienced a decline in Mass attendance, first Communions and confirmations, trends that local clergy hope the papal visit will help reverse.

A communique from the palace described the papal visit as “a historic moment for Monaco” that stands “as a strong sign of hope, in a spirit of dialogue, peace, and shared responsibility.”

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