Pope Leo XIV warned at UNESCO in France that artificial intelligence could leave people “losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines” as his four-day visit began at the Élysée Palace. He spoke after an hour of talks with Emmanuel Macron, placing the technology warning at the center of a trip that mixes church events with high-level political contact.
French police sealed off a large area around the Champs-Élysées for the Paris Mass on Saturday, where an altar has been built on the Place de la Concorde and more than half a million people are expected. Brigitte and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu are due at the Mass, along with Marine Le Pen, Edouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, and Bruno Retailleau.
Élysée Palace and Emmanuel Macron
The pope was greeted at Orly airport early on Friday by Emmanuel Macron before the two held talks at the Élysée Palace. Pope Leo XIV then used remarks to Church and state officials to warn against losing humanity amid a paradise of machines, a message that puts AI policy and church language into the same frame without offering a detailed program. For readers watching the visit closely, the immediate question is less about a slogan than about whether the warning turns into guidance for schools, parishes, or public debate during the trip.
Emmanuel Macron wanted a more ceremonial visit, but the Vatican team and the pope kept the agenda tighter and turned down a planned meeting with artisans who helped rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral. The president will not attend any of the pope’s Masses, while the pope will later be driven in his popemobile along a route to Notre Dame.
Paris Mass and Stade de France
The scale of the visit is the other part of the story. An evening event at the Stade de France will gather 80,000 young people in northern Paris, while Sunday in Lourdes has drawn 150,000 sign-ups for Mass in the Pyrenean sanctuary of Lourdes. The crowd numbers show why the trip is being read as both a religious tour and a public test of how far the Church can still mobilize in France.
A separate look at the UNESCO stop has focused on the pope’s broader technology message, and the pattern on Friday suggests that the warning is meant to travel with the visit rather than sit apart from it. On Monday the pope will be in Metz, where he will pay tribute to Robert Schuman, after meeting a group of migrants in Paris and visiting Lourdes to meet some victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.
