Pope Leo XIV led tens of thousands of people in a candlelight rosary procession Sept. 27 in the Marian shrine of Lourdes, saying that he had come as “a pilgrim among pilgrims.”

Pope Leo XIV urged 80,000 young people gathered at the Stade de France Sept. 25 to pursue holiness, peace and a “living relationship with Jesus” during an evening prayer vigil that showcased the diversity of France’s Catholic youth.

In the Marian shrine of Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV prayed for the sick and the suffering and drank from healing spring water in the grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858.

French survivors of clergy sexual abuse who met with Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes said they were struck by the pontiff’s deep personal empathy and his frank acknowledgment of the institutional failures that allowed the crisis to fester within the Church.

Close to 800,000 people lined Paris’ Champs Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde for Mass Sept. 26 with Pope Leo XIV, who urged the people of France to follow Jesus to the source of true happiness and peace.

For the first time since the world watched as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned in the devastating 2019 fire, the pope stepped inside the famous Gothic cathedral and called on Catholics in France to be “living stones” of a Church that bears witness to how God’s love restores and heals humanity.

Pope Leo XIV has added one of America’s leading Catholic educators with expertise in the connection between history and the faith to a key pontifical commission focused on preserving truth, at a time when the Holy Father is warning of how a failure to accurately understand history could lead to a politically and technologically more dangerous future for the world.

In an open letter addressed to Pope Leo XIV, five alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik said the silence and lack of information regarding the artist’s canonical trial added to their suffering.

Pope Leo XIV will open his second day in Paris with a special visit. On Sept. 26, he will cross the threshold of Maison Bakhita, a facility run by the Archdiocese of Paris dedicated to providing shelter for people in extreme need, most often migrants.

Pope Leo XIV warned diplomats, academics and youth delegates that human dignity is being cast to the wayside in the name of efficiency and productivity in the era of AI.