As announced by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline on June 9, Leo XIV will visit some of France’s most prominent Catholic sites when he makes a trip to the country later this year. From September 25 through 28, Leo will make a highly anticipated Apostolic journey – the first official papal journey to France since Pope Benedict visited in 2008.

The itinerary as outlined by the French bishops will see Leo go from north to the far south, before then finishing in the east, and is as follows:

• Friday September 25: Solemn Vespers at Notre-Dame de Paris. Priests, deacons and their wives, consecrated persons, religious men and women, as well as seminarians from all over France are invited.

• Friday, September 25: large prayer vigil with the young people of France.

• Saturday September 26: Papal Mass outdoors in Paris.

• Sunday September 27: Papal Mass in the Shrine of Lourdes, on the meadow facing the Cave.

• Monday September 28: Papal Mass at Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Metz.

On May 16, the Vatican had already confirmed that Leo XIV had accepted the invitation of the secular and religious authorities as well as the Director-General of UNESCO, such that the papal voyage would include a trip to UNESCO headquarters. Further information about this aspect, along with precise details of the entire trip will emerge later in the summer.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris joyfully welcomed the confirmed trip, and described Paris as a “concentrated” microcosm of the world:

“In Paris, the capital and world city, so many realities present in the Church in France are indeed concentrated: a Church that prays, gathers in joy, lives the sacraments, and gives thanks to the Lord at all times; a Church of witness, ceaselessly in dialogue with the world, a Church that intervenes tirelessly in the debates that traverse our secularized society; a Church that never renounces caring for the smallest and most fragile.”

Ulrich wrote that the Pope will find in Paris “a Church capable of producing original thought, borne in prayer, on how to be ever more resolutely missionary in its action, welcoming, credible, attentive, and close to all.”

The Archbishop has issued a call for around 10,000 volunteers to help prepare for the papal trip to Paris.

Cdl. Aveline, president of the French bishops’ conference, has been very public about his desire for Leo to visit France and issued an invitation to the pontiff in the earliest days of the pontificate.

“In the exchanges I have had with the Pope since his election, I quickly understood how very interested he was in such a trip,” Aveline revealed in May. “What the Church in France is experiencing, its missionary dynamism but also the challenges it faces, particularly interest him.”

Leo is a French speaker, and has already welcomed President Emmanuel Macron to the Vatican in April, after having met him briefly when traveling with Pope Francis to Ajaccio in Corsica in 2024.

France’s new Ambassador to the Holy See, Charles Personnaz, also presented his credentials to the Pope just last week.

But the Eldest Daughter of the Church is not exempt from attacks on the Faith. France just saw a renewed attempt to violate the Seal of Confession, when lawmakers prepared a proposal which would have seen priests forced to report any details of abuse of minors, if such details were received during Confession. The move ultimately failed after the clause in question was removed from the bill under discussion by the National Assembly.

This context will likely form a key element of Leo’s speeches to both politicians and clergy during his visit. Indeed as part of his wide-ranging tour de force speech to the Spanish Parliament on June 8, Leo firmly defended the sacramental seal, stating:

“the sacramental seal of confession holds special importance for the Catholic Church. It is part of the broader sphere of religious freedom, which guarantees believing communities their own space for life, organization and internal discipline. To protect it legally, as is done in a similar way in some professions, means preserving a sacred space of inner freedom, where the believer can open his or her soul to God without fear of external pressures, as international norms also recognize.”

Leo’s foreign trips have been, for many, a key part of his early pontificate, offering opportunities for him to engage with young people and reveal his charisma. So far such voyages have included:

• Turkey, Lebanon

• Monaco

• Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea

• Spain

Issuing a pastoral letter on June 1, to mark the upcoming feast of Corpus Christi, Archbishop Luis Argüello outlined certain instances in which reception of Holy Communion were not to take place.

The Spanish prelate’s letter comes by way of a rare intervention into the issue of who should receive Holy Communion. Not that the Church is unclear on this, but more that Her traditional teaching is often ignored. Argüello wrote:

“If our situation or state of life is incompatible with full communion with the Lord and His Church — whether because we are involved in a sinful relationship, in abuses against others — whether in the economic or workplace sphere, or in the psychological or emotional sphere — or by publicly defending positions contrary to Christian morality, we cannot approach Communion without a firm decision to change our lives and make amends for the harm caused by our sinful situation.”

Continuing, Argüello appeared to reiterate the Catholic teaching regarding the impossibility of receiving Holy Communion for those who have ‘re-married,’ writing against individuals in such arrangements from approaching the altar:

“Nor is it possible when a marital relationship has broken down and those who were part of that marriage are living in a new conjugal relationship.”

“These people,” added the Archbishop of Valladolid, “who continue to be part of the Church, must know that this breach of the Sacrament of the Covenant prevents Eucharistic communion; they may participate in the celebration, as well as in the life of the Church in many ways, but receiving Holy Communion is not possible.”

The Church’s Canon Law outlines clearly that anyone “conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.”

This is because, as the same Canon Law teaches, the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Catholic life.

Hence Catholics are not to approach Holy Communion as it they have a right to receive it regardless of the state of their soul. On the contrary, the Church teaches that Her faithful are “to hold the Most Holy Eucharist in highest honor, taking an active part in the celebration of the most august sacrifice, receiving this sacrament most devoutly and frequently, and worshiping it with the highest adoration.”

Referencing the spirit of this teaching, Argüello noted that – for the divorced and ‘re-married’ – the “pain of not receiving Communion must fuel the desire to seek a solution that respects the meaning of the two sacraments at stake: Marriage and the Eucharist.”

In order to safeguard the sacraments, he urged people to “prepare ourselves to celebrate the Eucharist, examine our consciences, and examine our way of life and state of life so that it is consistent with the full communion that comes with participating in the Eucharist by receiving the Body of the Lord.”

But what of 2016?

Argüello’s pastoral letter is in one sense, nothing noteworthy, given that it simply presents the Catholic teaching on the reception of Holy Communion.

However the focus on it is born from the fact that it appears to directly contradict the spirit of Amoris Laetitia, which proposed that the divorced and ‘re-married’ could receive Holy Communion. Add to that aspect the context that the letter comes from the president of the Spanish Bishops Conference with two years still left to serve and about to welcome a papal visit, and the letter takes on new significance.

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In the brief lines of the infamous footnote 351 in Chapter 8 of the 2016 Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis argued for the “integration” of those in “irregular unions” into the life of the Church. In the footnote, he stated that this “integration” can, “in certain cases,” involve admittance to the sacraments, including the Eucharist.

Fielding questions on the text, he later answered by saying there is “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitia except the one provided by the bishops of Buenos Aires allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried. The Pope was also asked during an in-flight press conference if the text contained a “change in discipline that governs access to the sacraments” for Catholics who are divorced and “re-married,” Francis replied, “I can say yes, period.”

It sparked easily one of the greatest controversies of Francis’ pontificate. Within months, a group of Catholic scholars wrote to all the cardinals and patriarchs, warning that Amoris Laetitia contained “dangers to the faith” and appealing for a correction.

On November 14, 2016 four cardinals publicly released the Dubia which they had privately sent to the Pope on September 19, but which had gone unanswered. The four signatories – Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, and Joachim Meisner – issued the Dubia only ten days after Francis’ comments to the Buenos Aires bishops: an interpretation of Amoris Laetitia which Brandmüller had previously warned would be heretical. No answer was received.

However, responding to a different Dubia from Cardinal Dominik Duka O.P. on the same issue in 2023, the Vatican implicitly provided an answer to the 2016 Dubia.

Duka asked whether Pope Francis’ response to the Bishops of Buenos Aires could be considered “a statement of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church.” Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández wrote that since Pope Francis’ words were published in the Vatican’s official compilation of documents, the Acta Apostolicae Sedes, they were “authentic Magisterium.”

It will be a revealing tell of Leo XIV’s style if Argüello is reprimanded by the Vatican, or if his statement remains unchallenged.

However, Leo has convened a special meeting of the presidents of bishops conferences for this October to examine Amoris Laetitia at its ten year anniversary.

The meeting will be, he explained, “an effort to proceed, in mutual listening, to a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris Laetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches.”

Much consternation has arisen from some, believing that Leo intends to further cement Amoris Laetitia into the Church’s teaching. However, as noted by this correspondent, subtle clues given by the American pontiff suggest that he may in fact do just the opposite.

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