Pope Leo XIV draws hundreds of thousands to open-air Mass on the Champs-Elysees

Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air Mass on Paris’s Champs-Elysees on Saturday. The Vatican put attendance at about 800,000, roughly 200,000 more than had registered. He greeted crowds from the popemobile on a 2km route to Place de la Concorde, where a stage topped with a golden cross hosted the service. Critics of France’s church–state separation argue the republican square was a poor choice and cite Les Invalides, where Benedict XVI held Mass for 240,000 in 2008.