Around 15,000 people welcomed Pope Leo XIV with cheers and applause at the Louis II Stadium. A large-scale Mass was celebrated there as the grand finale of the first papal visit in history to the small Principality of Monaco, located on the French Riviera.
The pope, among other reasons, also made this trip as a gesture of gratitude to Prince Albert II for his recent rejection of an abortion law that was recently proposed in the country. It was a point he emphasized during his homily:
POPE LEO XIV
“Even today, how many calculations are made in the world to kill the innocent; how many false reasons are claimed to eliminate them! Yet, in the face of the persistence of evil, the eternal justice of God stands, constantly delivering us from our tombs, as He did for Lazarus, and giving us new life.”
Additionally, the pope took the opportunity to make an appeal for peace, and he shared a reminder that war can never be a solution to any problem—only the creation of new and even greater ones:
POPE LEO XIV
“Every truncated life is a wound in the body of Christ. Let us not become accustomed to the roar of weapons or the images of war! Peace is not a mere balance of forces; it is the work of purified hearts, of those who see in the other a brother to care for, not an enemy to strike down.”
A choir of children and an orchestra from Monaco provided music for the papal Mass, which included works by the priest and composer Marco Frisina. Pope Leo encouraged the world’s second-smallest country to prepare for the greatest moment and mystery of the Christian faith: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
