Sawt Falasteen - Pope celebrates giant Paris mass, flies to Lourdes

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades.

In the highlight of the visit's second day, the 71-year-old pope led believers in a mass at Place de la Concorde, where a giant white canopy had been erected to serve as a makeshift altar.

Amid worshippers' visible enthusiasm, the pope's prayers were accompanied by choral and organ music as the sun broke through the grey skies.

"It is truly good and pleasant when brothers and sisters come together and glorify the greatness of God," said Pope Leo, dressed in white liturgical vestments.

Over more than two kilometres, some 800,000 people had gathered all the way beyond the Arc de Triomphe, the Vatican said. The city centre was sealed off for the service, with helicopters circling overhead and snipers positioned on rooftops.

"It's one time in history to see the pope," said Aline Riziki, 41, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and who has lived in France for 11 years.

"I dropped everything to come here and see him, to pray for peace in the east" of her homeland, wracked by conflict for decades, she said.

- 'Important moment' -

Jeanne de Montagnac, 29, came with her husband and two-year-old girl, who was perched on his shoulders.

"We're happy that, even if she won't remember it, we're sharing this with her," she said, a small golden cross dangling over her jumper.

"It's an important moment for us to be surrounded by other people who also have faith."

The first US pontiff was visiting France seven months before voters choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron, with the anti-immigration far right eyeing its best opportunity yet to capture the presidency.

A number of presidential hopefuls were present, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe.

President Emmanuel Macron did not attend the mass but was represented by his wife Brigitte.

On Sunday, Leo will speak with seven victims of clerical sex abuse. A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over seven decades.

- 'Dignity and peace' -

Earlier in the day, the pope met migrants at Maison Bakhita, an association supporting refugees. Leo said it was "possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace".

He also stressed the "fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love".

The association said the pope's visit sent a "message" ahead of the April-May election.

On Friday, an estimated 300,000 people turned out to see the pontiff as he waved from his popemobile on the way to the Notre Dame Cathedral.

"There is a sense of fervour reminiscent of that experienced over 40 years ago with John Paul II," Francois Mabille, director of the Geopolitical Observatory on Religion, told broadcaster RMC.

There he was scheduled to pray at the Grotto of Massabielle, a renowned pilgrimage site where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 to a peasant girl.

Bells rang at the sanctuary when he landed and children held up a banner reading "Welcome, Pope Leo."

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M.Qasim--SF-PST