From Chicago to Paris: Pope Leo XIV Draws 800,000 to the Heart of France

PARIS — A Chicago-born American stood at the center of one of Europe’s most famous avenues Saturday as an estimated 800,000 people filled central Paris for Pope Leo XIV, producing one of the largest gatherings of his young papacy.

Crowds stretched along the Champs-Élysées as the pope traveled past the Arc de Triomphe before celebrating an outdoor Mass at Place de la Concorde. Reuters reported an estimated attendance of 800,000, while nearly 600,000 people had formally registered beforehand.

For Chicago, the images carried an extraordinary significance.

Before he was Pope Leo XIV, leader of the world’s roughly 1.4 billion Catholics, he was Robert Francis Prevost — born in Chicago, Illinois, on Sept. 14, 1955. According to his Vatican biography, he grew up in the Chicago area, attended St. Mary of the Assumption school and later studied theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Today, that Chicago native is the 267th pope of the Catholic Church and the first American to hold the office.

Chicago’s Pope Meets Paris

The scale of Saturday’s reception offered a striking picture of how far Prevost’s life has traveled.

From his childhood in the Chicago area, he entered the Augustinian order, became a missionary and bishop in Peru, led the worldwide Augustinian order and eventually served in the Vatican before being elected pope in 2025.

Now, little more than a year into his pontificate, the American pope was moving through Paris surrounded by crowds extending through one of the most recognizable urban landscapes in the world.

People shouted “Leo, Leo” as the pontiff traveled in the popemobile along the Champs-Élysées, The Star reported.

The scenes were especially remarkable given France’s complicated relationship with Catholicism. The country maintains a strong tradition of laïcité, or secularism, and Catholic participation has declined substantially over generations. Yet interest in Leo’s visit exceeded expectations, according to the Associated Press.

French authorities had prepared for enormous numbers. The Interior Ministry said before the visit that approximately one million faithful and visitors were expected in Paris over the pope’s two days in the capital, with roughly 15,000 security personnel mobilized.

A Crowd Larger Than Expected

The viral claim that “close to a million” people were gathered specifically at the Arc de Triomphe is somewhat broader than the official estimates.

The most recent reporting puts attendance at Saturday’s outdoor Mass at about 800,000, spread through the Champs-Élysées and surrounding central Paris. The one-million estimate referred more broadly to the number of people French authorities expected during Leo’s two days of events in Paris.