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Large crowds are expected throughout the pontiff’s trip, which the Church believes reflects a growing spirituality among the French and other Europeans.
On Sunday, 150,000 have signed up to attend mass in the Pyrenean sanctuary of Lourdes.
The Pope will be in Metz, in northeast France, on Monday where he will pay tribute to Robert Schuman (1886-1963), a founding father of the European Union and a fervent Catholic who is today a candidate for beatification.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Pope Leo XIV was originally called Robert Prevost – a French name.
His paternal grandmother was born in Le Havre in Normandy in 1894. When she married in the US many years later, she and her Italian husband took the name Prevost, which had been her mother’s maiden name.
