Body
The Vatican confirmed Saturday that Pope Leo XIV will travel to France for four days at the end of September, with plans to include a stop at UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency. The trip is set for Sept. 25-28 and adds another entry to Leo’s overseas schedule for 2026.
The Vatican said the France visit will be Leo’s fourth foreign trip of the year. Leo previously made a day trip to Monaco in March and then visited four African nations in April, and he is also due to travel to Spain and the Canary Islands in June, according to the reported travel timeline.
The AP report also contrasted Leo’s approach with the travel pattern of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Francis, the report said, spent years avoiding the largest European centers of Christianity, instead favoring visits to smaller Catholic communities far from Rome.
With the France trip confirmed, the report said Leo now appears to be focusing more on the experience of European Catholics, including amid anecdotal reports of renewed interest in the faith among young adults.
The planned UNESCO stop is also described as part of the pope’s broader international outreach. The AP account said the UNESCO visit would allow Leo to address a global audience, in a year when he decided against traveling to his native United States, where he could have spoken at the U.N. General Assembly, as past popes have done.
The report said Pope Francis visited France twice, but not on a state visit to Paris. It said Francis made a day trip to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, and later traveled to Marseille in 2023 for a conference on migration.
Alongside the confirmed September France and UNESCO plans, the AP report said a potential visit to Latin America—possibly including Peru, which Leo is described as considering a “beloved second home”—remained unconfirmed and uncertain at the time of the report.