PARIS — Pope Leo XIV’s four-day visit to France is being described by the Vatican as “a journey that unites faith and public engagement, memory and the future, with listening and bridge-building at its heart.” The schedule, which the Vatican released in a 12-page PDF that the French presidency described as “comprehensive,” includes 15 speeches, a Mass attended by more than half a million people, a meeting with abuse survivors, an address on European unity at UNESCO, and a vigil with 80,000 young people at the Stade de France.

It also includes one lunch.

The lunch is on Saturday, at 12:15 p.m., in a private room at the Élysée Palace, with the President and the Prime Minister. The Vatican did not disclose the menu. The Élysée did not disclose the menu. A source at the Élysée, who was not authorized to speak about the menu and was, in any event, not authorized to speak about the lunch, said the menu was “very French.”

"The schedule is comprehensive. The lunch is comprehensive. The two are not the same thing, but they are both comprehensive."

The visit is the first papal state visit to France in nearly 20 years, and France is, as NPR’s preview noted, “the eldest daughter of the Roman Catholic Church” and also “a staunchly secular nation with strict separation of church and state since 1905.” Pope Leo, an American, appears to be the only figure in the current geopolitical moment capable of satisfying both descriptions at the same time, and the French have responded by scheduling 15 speeches around this fact.

At 15:00 on Friday, the Pope delivered a speech at the Élysée Palace in which he condemned “assisted dying,” abortion, and surrogacy in terms that The Tablet described as “forceful.” French secularists, who have been describing the visit as “a problem” for approximately six weeks, described the speech as “confirming the problem.”

POPE LEO IN FRANCE: THE SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

  • Friday: Élysée arrival, courtesy visit, 15:00 speech on the dignity of human life
  • Saturday: Mass at the Place de la Concorde (expected attendance: 500,000+); lunch at 12:15 (menu: undisclosed); meeting with abuse survivors in the afternoon
  • Sunday: UNESCO address on European unity, AI, and interreligious dialogue at 15:00; vigil with 80,000 young people at the Stade de France at 21:00
  • Monday: "Listening session" with French bishops; the word "listening" appears 11 times in the 12-page schedule
  • Total speeches: 15. Total lunches: 1. Total menus disclosed: 0

The abuse-survivor meeting is the element of the itinerary the Vatican has described, in its own words, as “at the heart” of the visit. The meeting will be held at a location the Vatican described as “a place of calm.” Activists have already announced a presence “near a place of calm” with placards that, per a photo released Wednesday, include one reading “330,000 victims of child sexual abuse, never again.”

The Pope, for his part, has been described by French media as a “force tranquille” — a quiet force — a term that the Élysée has since adopted for the schedule itself, which is 12 pages long, has 15 speeches on it, and contains, per a review of the document, the word “calm” four more times.

At press time, the Pope was in a small car on the way to his first of 15 speeches, which is at 15:00. The lunch is at 12:15 on Saturday. The two events are, the Vatican confirmed, “not the same thing.”