Gaetan sees broad appeal in Pope Leo XIV’s France visit
The National Catholic Register correspondent said the visit offered a window into the Pope’s early papacy, while the interview gave no independent measure of the welcome he described.
Victor Gaetan, a senior international correspondent for the National Catholic Register, described Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France as more than a successful pastoral journey. In a France 24 interview published on 28 September, he said it offered insight into the intellectual and political character of the Pope’s early papacy.
Gaetan said Leo had been welcomed by people of different faiths and across France’s political spectrum. The interview did not provide polling, attendance figures or other evidence to measure the reach of that appeal.
He also linked Leo XIV’s thinking to Pope Leo XIII, particularly the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. That document addressed social consequences of technological and economic change, but Gaetan’s interview did not detail the ideas connecting the two pontiffs.
Separate France 24 coverage said Leo XIV concluded the four-day visit with a speech in Metz on European peace and unity.
