CultureWhy did 700,000 people turn out for Pope Leo in secular France?

Pope Leo XIV’s open-air Mass in central Paris drew an estimated 700,000 people. Crowds filled the Champs-Élysées as he travelled by popemobile to Place de la Concorde, a site closely tied to the French Republic, prompting debate in a country where Catholic affiliation has declined for decades and secularism is a strict tradition.