By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, May 16 (Reuters) – Pope Leo will travel to France from September 25 to 28, the Vatican announced on Saturday, and will visit the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, which is facing budget shortfalls after the United States withdrew from the agency last year.
The first U.S. pope, who marked a year leading the 1.4-billion-member Church on May 8, has been ramping up his schedule and speaking more forcefully, attracting the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump after criticizing the Iran war.
Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) following his return to the White House resulted in a loss of 8% of its total budget, the agency has said.
French bishops had said earlier this month that the pope was likely to travel to the country in September, including to Paris and Lourdes, site of a famed Catholic shrine. However, they did not indicate UNESCO would be part of the itinerary.
During the trip, Leo is also likely to celebrate mass at the famed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which reopened in 2024, five years after a devastating fire nearly brought the building to collapse. UNESCO designated the cathedral as a prestigious World Heritage site in 1991.
A U.S. POPE WITH FRENCH ROOTS
The trip to France will be Leo’s fourth outside Italy this year, following a four-nation Africa tour, a visit to Monaco, and an upcoming trip to Spain in June, where the pope is expected to encourage better treatment of migrants entering Europe.
The Vatican said a more detailed program for the French visit would be announced later.
Leo is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron during the trip and may also address the French parliament.
The last pope to make an official visit to France was Benedict XVI, in 2008. The late Pope Francis, who died in April 2025 after 12 years leading the Church, traveled to French territory three times but never made an official visit to the country.
Francis made a day-trip to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe, a two-day visit to Marseille in 2023 to speak at a conference, and a day visit to Corsica in 2024 to visit Catholics on the Mediterranean island.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, counts French immigrants to the U.S. among his ancestors.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Sara Rossi and Joe Bavier)
