Pope Leo XIV has named the family, the welcome of the stranger and the sacredness of human life at every stage among the moral foundations of Europe, in a homily at Saint Stephen’s Cathedral in Metz, northeast France. The Mass on September 28 closed a four-day apostolic journey that had taken in Paris and Lourdes.
Metz lies in the Moselle region, near the point where the borders of France, Germany and Luxembourg meet. Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, lived in the city and is buried nearby.
Leo XIV told the congregation that Europe’s spiritual and moral heritage had come before its economic and political heritage, recalling words spoken by John Paul II at Santiago de Compostela in 1982. He then listed the principles the continent inherited from Christian faith.
They were the primacy of the person and the inviolable nature of human life at all stages, the protection of individual freedom and the family as the foundation of society, along with care for the poor, the welcome of the stranger and respect for the elderly.
The Pope, who at the Élysée Palace had already told French President Emmanuel Macron that the right to life underpins every other right, also pressed the case for forgiveness. Addressing a region torn apart in the past by fratricidal conflict, he said it was not true that those who sought revenge were stronger than those who forgave.
He described the cathedral’s 6,500 square metres of stained glass, including panels by the Jewish painter Marc Chagall, as a sign of unity in difference. “Europe’s future does not lie in uniformity, but in the harmony of differences,” he said.
Earlier that day, at the Robert Schuman Congress Centre, Leo XIV addressed a meeting on European integration entitled “To the Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity”. He said the search for peace should not be confused with naive pacifism, though “we must also guard against the illusion that rearmament is the answer”.
The Élysée had invited the heads of state and government of the 26 other member states and representatives of the EU institutions. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden was among the few to confirm, and reports from Metz said almost none of the others attended or sent representatives.
Macron introduced the meeting and then rearranged his schedule to attend the Mass, having earlier said he would stay away from all three papal liturgies on grounds of laïcité. On September 25 the Pope had told UNESCO that artificial intelligence could not answer the search for meaning.
Leo XIV asked the diocese of Metz to be a beacon of hope for France, Europe and the world before flying back to Rome.
