The Vatican confirmed that after arriving at Metz-Nancy-Lorraine airport in France, the pope will travel to the Robert Schuman Congress Center to talk with representatives of the Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim faiths, as well as the Catholic Church in France.

His Holiness will deliver a lecture at that center entitled “The Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity,” in the presence of EU heads of State and government, invited by President Emmanuel Macron, who will also attend it.

Schuman was a Luxembourgish foreign minister closely linked to the origins of the entity that later follows the European Economic Community, which subsequently became the EU.

While delivering a Sunday address in Lourdes, the Holy Father called on the Catholic community to pray throughout October to end wars and for establishing peace among peoples and countries in conflict.

Pope Leo XIV’s trip to France marks the first visit by a head of the Catholic Church to the European country since Benedict XVI visited in 2008.

jdt/iff/ocs/to