VATICAN
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron will meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time Friday during a visit to the Vatican, against a background of the Iran war that both have condemned.
\nThe French president was due to arrive in Rome on Thursday for a visit focused purely on the meeting with the pontiff, with no plans to see with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader with whom Macron has sometimes clashed.
\nThursday evening, Macron was due to meet with his friend Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Catholic community of Sant\u2019Egidio, the Holy See\u2019s informal diplomatic channel that is active in peace efforts and humanitarian issues.
\nOn Friday morning, Macron will meet the French-speaking Chicago-born pope at the Vatican\u2019s Apostolic Palace for what the Elysee Palace called a \u201crepublican and secular visit.\u201d
\nThe leaders will address a wide range of topics, from international affairs and the regulation of artificial intelligence \u2014 a subject close to the pope\u2019s heart \u2014 to climate change and humanitarian issues, it said.
\nIt will be the fourth papal audience for the center-right leader of France, following three with Leo\u2019s predecessor, Francis, in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
\nMacron and Leo spoke by phone last May, shortly after the former Robert Francis Prevost was elected head of the world\u2019s 1.4 billion Catholics.
\nThen, Macron told the new pontiff he shared \u201cthe ambition to reconcile the fight against poverty and the protection of the planet.\u201d
\nThe upcoming meeting with the discreet and measured Leo may call for a change in style for the seasoned French leader, who enjoyed a close and direct relationship with the Argentine Francis, whom he even addressed informally.<\/p>\n
\u2018Intellectual exchange\u2019
\nVatican expert Marco Politi told AFP the encounter would be more than just a diplomatic meeting, but instead a \u201cpersonal, intellectual exchange.\u201d
\nWith the Trump presidency and the war in Iran, the current geopolitical environment is marked by \u201cbrutality and chaos,\u201d he said, with Macron and Leo representing leaders who want \u201cto rebuild an international society based on rules.\u201d
\nIn recent weeks, Leo has been more outspoken in opposing the foreign policy of US President Donald Trump, calling his threat ahead of this week\u2019s ceasefire agreement to wipe out Iran\u2019s civilization \u201cunacceptable.\u201d
\nMacron, meanwhile, has expressed irritation over Trump, most recently after the Republican\u2019s mocking comments about the French leader\u2019s marriage.
\nAccording to news reports, Macron may also use Friday\u2019s meeting to call for the release of French journalist Christophe Gleizes, who has been imprisoned since June in Algeria, where Leo is due to fly on Monday in a papal first.
\n– Visit to France? –
\nMacron\u2019s delegation includes the former president of a commission over church sex abuse in France. The commission was never officially received by Pope Francis, despite its 2021 report exposing systemic scale of abuse within the institution.
\nAmid current debate in France, the issue of assisted dying and euthanasia could also be raised in the meeting between Macron and Leo. The Vatican regards euthanasia as a \u201ccrime against human life\u201d and assisted dying as a \u201cgrave sin,\u201d with those resorting to such measures barred from receiving the sacraments.
\nA diplomatic source told AFP that Macron is expected to formally invite the pope to France.
\nDespite having visited France on three occasions \u2014 to Strasbourg, Marseille and Corsica\u2019s Ajaccio \u2014 Francis never made a state visit to the country, and declined to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time Friday during a visit to the Vatican, against a background of the Iran war that both have condemned. The French president was due to arrive in Rome on Thursday for a visit focused purely on the meeting with the pontiff, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n