Nearly 600,000 people have registered to attend the mass that Pope Leo XIV will celebrate on September 26 at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. This was announced on Wednesday by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich.
Due to the high number of attendees, the Archdiocese of Paris is organizing an additional area for worshippers at the Place de l’Étoile and along the Avenue de la Grande Armée. The original plan only included the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées. Archbishop Ulrich added that the perimeter will be secured by law enforcement and noted that he decided to close the registration platform for the mass on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.
Organizing the Pope’s visit to France
In front of the altar currently being built in the center of the Place de la Concorde, worshippers will be placed along a “single three-kilometer-long axis” that will extend to Porte Maillot, which is outside the security perimeter. The Pope’s visit to France will last from September 25 to 28 and will include events in Paris, Lourdes, and Metz.
General Hervé Wattecamps, the coordinator for the visit from the Archdiocese of Paris, stated on September 8 that the main challenge is to “accommodate about a million people in six stages over a day and a half.” During his stay in Paris, the Pope will visit UNESCO and Notre-Dame de Paris, as well as the Stade de France, where 80,000 people have already registered for an evening vigil with young people.
In Lourdes, 150,000 worshippers are expected for Sunday mass on September 27 in the meadow near the sanctuary. In Metz, organizers expect 40,000 people on September 28, all registered through the ticketing system.
Source: Le Figaro
