President of France received Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV met privately with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on Friday morning, just after his arrival in Paris for his four-day Apostolic Journey to France, Vatican News reports.

The Pope then addressed the authorities, civil society, and diplomatic corps, recalling his own French heritage and assuring the nation of his prayers.

He recalled that France has served as a cultural, artistic, and spiritual beacon for Europe and the world for centuries.

“The many brilliant French scholars who were also faithful Catholics demonstrates clearly how the sciences and the arts, literature, and philosophy can contribute to the good of humanity when they are directed toward the pursuit of beauty, goodness and truth, that the world may have life,” said the Pope.

He expressed appreciation for the mastery shown by French architects and artists in rebuilding the Cathedral of Notre-Dame after the 2019 fire.

Calling it an “impressive technical achievement,” the Pope said the reconstruction of Notre-Dame showed that something considered irreparably destroyed can be reborn through mutual cooperation.

Pope Leo said France bears deep Christian roots and the nation’s soul draws from Christianity “a rich spiritual, cultural, intellectual, artistic, and missionary élan (spirit).”

In 16th-century humanism, French philosophers united the ancient Greek and Roman heritage with the Christian faith and promoted the recognition of human rights based on the nature of the human person, especially religious freedom.

Pointing to France’s national motto, he said liberty, equality, and fraternity “refer to universal ethical imperatives that also find in the Gospel message an inexhaustible source of inspiration and fulfillment.”

Pope Leo then noted his focus in Magnifica Humanitas on artificial intelligence, saying respect for human dignity and our fundamental rights and freedoms must keep pace with societal change and technological progress.