ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV told reporters they were welcome to cover him Friday, as he responded to the Trump administration’s attempt to bar U.S. media from the White House and affirmed the importance of journalists covering public figures.
Leo spoke to reporters as he travelled to France for a four-day visit. Asked by a CNN reporter about the Trump administration’s attempt to bar CNN and other reporters, Leo said the media was welcome on his plane.
“I am very happy that here, you are all welcome,” he said.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico were back at the White House on Thursday after a judge handed them a reprieve from President Donald Trump's ban, but the extraordinary showdown between him and outlets whose coverage he dislikes continued.
On a high-profile day when Chinese leader Xi Jinping was visiting Washington and attending a state dinner, no major American network was airing live coverage, and both CNN and MS NOW said their journalists were denied access to Xi’s state dinner arrival.
Leo also apologized for missing an opportunity to speak with the press the last time he travelled internationally, when his Iberia charter broke down in Spain's Canary Islands and he returned home solo on the king's private jet, skipping his traditional airborne press conference with reporters.
Leo told reporters travelling with him that he had “nothing to do with” the decision to accept the Spanish king's offer to use his private jet to return to Rome. More than 70 reporters and the Vatican delegation waited for several hours at the airport in Tenerife for a replacement plane to arrive.
Leo addressed the media's disappointment when he came to the back of the plane to greet reporters.
“A special mention I would like to make for those of you who were travelling with me when we returned to Rome from Spain,” he said. “I want to apologize personally for an incident, that I had nothing to do with, but which I know left a number of you unhappy with the fact that we couldn’t have the flight back together back to Rome.”
Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, during his apostolic journey to France. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, Pool)
ORLY, France (AP) — Pope Leo XIV began a four-day visit to France on Friday, hoping to draw attention to his appeals for peace at a time of war, and for greater reflection as artificial intelligence questions the very essence of what it means to be human.
Leo is spending four intense days in Paris, the Catholic shrine at Lourdes and the northeastern city of Metz.
Church bells across France tolled when Leo’s charter flight landed at Paris’ Orly airport, and upward of a million people are expected to turn out to see him during his visit. The welcome has underscored the surprising level of interest in Leo’s visit, the first by a pope in 18 years.
Leo was greeted by President Emmanuel Macron at the airport and will meet again at the Élysée Palace. During his busiest day of the trip, Leo was to then deliver a speech at UNESCO headquarters, celebrate vespers at the newly reopened Notre-Dame cathedral and then preside over a massive youth vigil at the Paris stadium Friday night.
For Macron, who is barred from seeking a third term in May elections, hosting the American pope is something of a capstone, after Pope Francis refused repeatedly to make a proper state visit to France during his 12-year pontificate.
“For a president of the republic as Macron, who is at the end of his mandate, it can be important to be aside the pope and to capture a part of his popularity. It’s not new,” said Charles Mercier, director of history and sociology of Catholicism studies at Paris EPHE university.
With seven months left in his term, Macron’s approval ratings are near record lows, driven by anger over the rising cost of living and criticism of France’s growing debt and deficit and deteriorating public services. Macron’s office said Friday’s meeting with Leo will provide an opportunity to discuss global challenges such as climate change and artificial intelligence, along with European and international affairs. The talks also are expected to address end-of-life care and the protection of children.
Leo seems keen to emphasize Europe’s Christian roots and try to push the church’s message about the value and dignity of human life in a country where the right to abortion was enshrined in the Constitution in 2024 and where lawmakers recently gave final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication.
The French Catholic hierarchy strongly opposed the measures, in keeping with Catholic teaching that human life must be protected and defended from conception until natural death. But the French hierarchy has lost much of its influence amid the secularizing trends at play across Western Europe as well as a credibility crisis stemming from France’s reckoning with its legacy of clergy sexual abuse.
France’s distinctive model of secularism, known as laïcité and enshrined in its Constitution, guarantees the freedom to believe or not to believe, as well as the freedom to practice a religion as long as it doesn't disturb public order. It also requires the state to remain neutral toward all religions.
Key rules have been defined by a historic 1905 law, primarily intended to distance the state from the then-powerful influence of the Catholic Church.
Leo, whose paternal ancestors were French, isn’t expected to scold the French over the abortion and end-of-life legislation. Rather, he's expected to summon them to a fundamental, higher-altitude consideration about what it means to be human today, said the Vatican’s editorial director Andrea Tornielli.
“The pope is not landing in the City of Light to condemn anyone, nor to barge into the French political debate, which is as polarized as that of every other European country,” Tornielli wrote in Vatican News. “He comes as a shepherd to meet a people, their history, and their culture.”
Olympic-level security measures were being put in place, including mounted police, bomb disposal experts, anti-drone measures and counter-terrorism measures, said Paris police prefecture spokesperson Hélène Denéchère.
In Paris alone, plans called for 14,000 police officers, gendarmes, and military personnel and 2,500 firefighters on Friday. On Saturday, when Leo celebrates Mass at the central Place de la Concorde, the numbers are only slightly lower.
“We are implementing a system similar to what was in place during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which means a protective perimeter around which other security perimeters will be added,” Denéchère said.
Associated Press visual journalist Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV boards a flight to Paris at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino for a four-day pastoral visit to France, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A banner announces the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV in Metz eastern France, Tuesday, Sept 15, 2026 as part of his official visit to France from Sept. 26 to 28. (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrive in the St. Damasus Courtyard at the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIV, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
The Champs Elysees prepares for the mass that Pope Leo XIV will celebrate during his visit in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
A pigeon flies past Pope Leo XIV as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
