Pope Leo XIV will receive French President Emmanuel Macron in the Vatican on April 10, confirms the Director of the Holy See Press Office.
By Marie Duhamel Pope Leo and President Macron will meet in the Vatican on April 10, a few days after the celebration of the Resurrection and the Holy Father’s Urbi et Orbi address, but also three days before the Pope’s departure for Algeria, the first stop of the Holy Father's first Apostolic Journey to the African continent, scheduled from April 13 to 23. The Director of the Holy See Press Office confirmed on Wednesday evening the meeting already announced by the Élysée Palace. The Pope will receive the French president in a private audience, who will be accompanied by his wife, Matteo Bruni specified. The two men have reportedly crossed paths in the past, notably during Pope Francis’s trips to France, in Marseille and Ajaccio, but this will be the first meeting between the Holy Father and President Macron since his election to the See of Peter. At the Mass inaugurating the pontificate of Leo XIV, France was represented by the serving Prime Minister, François Bayrou. The French president is nevertheless familiar with the protocol to follow. Papal audiences are traditionally held in the Library of the Apostolic Palace and are followed by meetings with the Secretary of State and the Secretary for Relations with States. Six audiences with Francis Since his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has made several visits to the Vatican, where he was received in 2018, 2021 and 2022 by Pope Francis, whom he met again during private talks in Marseille in September 2023, at the Borgo Egnazia G7 summit in June 2024, and then in December 2024 in Ajaccio. On April 10, there will be no shortage of topics for discussion. The Holy See and France are closely following developments in the ongoing war in the Middle East, from freedom of worship in Jerusalem to the future of Lebanon, where the Pope chose to make his first foreign trip last November. The preservation of peace, respect for international law, and the fight against global warming are areas of convergence between Vatican and French diplomacy. Other issues divide them, particularly those relating to respect for life from conception to natural death, such as the recent inclusion of the “right to abortion” in the French Constitution or the current debate on end-of-life matters.