Pope encourages Catholics in deeply secular France to persevere as Paris shuts down for huge Mass

Pope Leo XIV encouraged French Catholics on Saturday to persevere in their faith “even amid the thorns” of a secular world, rallying the faithful ahead of a huge Mass at the iconic Place de la Concorde that shut down central Paris.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction…”