Crowds fill the Champs-Élysées as Pope is to celebrate a giant Mass on Place de la Concorde

Описание: (26 Sep 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 26 September 2026
1. Crowd gathered on Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe in background
2. Pan of gathered crowd behind metal barriers, police patrolling
3. Crowd seeing Pope’s morning events on giant TV screens, Place de la Concorde in background
4. People gathered near Place de la Concorde, covered podium where Pope will lead mass
5. Crowd behind metal barriers on Place de la Concorde
5. Police in the middle of crowd
6. Arc de Triomphe with crowd at bottom ++MUTE++
7. Various of gathered crowd, covered altar and stage
STORYLINE:
Crowds fill the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Saturday as people await Pope Leo XIV to celebrate a giant mass at the central Place de la Concorde later in the day.

Road closures and other crowd-control measures for the pope shut down central Paris, reminiscent of the security blanket during the Olympic Games in 2024.

Organizers said they chose the site because it was the only area in central Paris that could accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend as more than 600,000 people registered.

Last week, organizers extended the crowd site because they predicted more.

Leo’s visit is the first official state visit by a pope to France in 18 years.

Leo has an intense four days in France, where the Catholic Church has lost ground in influencing ethical issues given the strict approach to secularism that is enshrined in the French Constitution.

AP Video by Nicolas Garriga, Philippe Marion, Oleg Cetinic, Kostya Manenkov
AP Production by Jeff Schaeffer and Catherine Gaschka

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