Overview
- France’s presidency announced an official visit to the Vatican for April 9–10, with Emmanuel Macron’s first in-person meeting with Pope Léon XIV set for April 10.
- The Élysée said the talks will focus on current international crises, notably the war in the Middle East, and could also address France’s assisted-dying bill due for Senate debate on May 11.
- The visit lands between Easter and the April 21 anniversary of Pope Francis’s death and precedes the new pope’s Africa tour, which starts in Algeria where relations with Paris remain strained.
- Brigitte Macron will accompany the president during the Vatican visit, according to French media reports.
- Macron and Léon XIV last spoke by phone on May 15, 2025 about peace in Ukraine and Gaza after earlier plans for face-to-face meetings fell through because of scheduling conflicts.