FRANCE24 — broadcast
20260926 080000 UTC
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[00:00:00] oh yes. What do I say at the end of
[00:00:14] Pope has already visited a center dedicated to the reception
[00:00:17] and integration of exiled people. It is located in the north of Paris. He
[00:00:21] called for living together in dignity and peace. We find
[00:00:24] Mélina Huette there. Meanwhile,
[00:00:28] the faithful are beginning to flock to the Place de la Concorde and the
[00:00:32] Champs Élysées. The Pope will celebrate an XXL mass
[00:00:35] starting at 3 PM. He will descend, he will descend, pardon me,
[00:00:39] before that, the Champs Élysées. This is one of the highlights of this visit,
[00:00:43] as is the meeting with catechumens. We will talk about it in a moment with
[00:00:47] Constance Colona
[00:01:16] The Pope has been multiplying meetings this morning. He went to the Bakita house
[00:01:19] located in the north of Paris for a moment of discussion with exiled people
[00:01:23] supported by the diocese in this reception place. We're going to
[00:01:27] go there right away to Mélina Huette who is on site. Elina, hello.
[00:01:31] This visit was obviously meticulously planned but it was meant to allow the Pontiff
[00:01:34] to speak with volunteers and
[00:01:36] refugees.
[00:01:41] Absolutely, it was a very quick visit, as you said, about 30 minutes
[00:01:45] we watch an excerpt from behind closed doors with about forty people, both
[00:01:48] employees and volunteers and exiles. No
[00:01:51] press team was allowed inside, only the pool images
[00:01:55] that you may have seen on our channel. The Pope spoke in
[00:01:59] French. A short speech but very
[00:02:02] spiritual. He praised a house that, according to him, shows that it is
[00:02:06] possible to, and I quote, meet and live together
[00:02:09] in dignity and peace. And then, of course, he mentioned
[00:02:12] Saint Bakita who gave her name to this house, a former
[00:02:16] Sudanese slave who became a nun, who invites us, according
[00:02:19] to him, to see the invisible and to free those whom the economy and
[00:02:23] culture today reduce to slavery. And then there was this
[00:02:26] phrase: "The history of the Church and of humanity is not written by
[00:02:30] those who give the impression of winning by imposing themselves and occupying
[00:02:33] space, but by those who make room." End of quote.
[00:02:37] So a tribute obviously to the teams of the
[00:02:40] Bakita house and all the people who work with people in vulnerable situations, whether
[00:02:44] they are exiles, people with disabilities, the
[00:02:47] homeless too, because that's what it was all about this morning. He
[00:02:51] said he was very happy to start
[00:02:54] this day in this place, a place that wasn't expecting the Pope, the
[00:02:57] 18th arrondissement of Paris for those who don't know... it's not a place where one
[00:03:01] necessarily expected to receive the
[00:03:03] Holy Pontiff. We saw him shake hands with the volunteers
[00:03:07] for a long time. We also saw him receive
[00:03:10] Zinedine Zidane, the new coach of a sculpture as a gift and then end with a sign of the cross
[00:03:12] repeated by the whole room. He also had some messages from
[00:03:16] volunteers and exiles who would not have been able to see him and who had
[00:03:19] written a small note that had been invited to write a small note on a card that was handed to him during this
[00:03:24] suspended above the visit. This is a topic, Mélina, that the Pontiff has placed at the heart of his pontificate, just like his
[00:03:27] predecessor.
[00:03:33] Yes, absolutely. Leo XIV, he talks about it from his own history
[00:03:37] they say, "Well, they didn't want to give me the mic in this black culture when I arrived," and also we talk about the working class, the actually, because remember in May 2025, just a few days after his
[00:03:40] election, he addressed the diplomatic corps, calling
[00:03:43] himself a citizen, a descendant of immigrants, himself
[00:03:47] an emigrant, having been born in Chicago but having spent
[00:03:51] years in Peru as a missionary, and he has made it a common thread of his travels over
[00:03:55] these past few months, notably last June in the Canary Islands, he
[00:03:58] threw flowers into the sea for the people who died in the
[00:04:02] crossing of the Atlantic. He was
[00:04:05] extremely moved, we saw him in
[00:04:08] these images to pay tribute to these men, women
[00:04:12] and children who lost their lives during
[00:04:15] their crossing of the ocean or the sea in search of a better life. And
[00:04:19] then, you remember, on July 4th, he had been invited by the Trump
[00:04:23] administration to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, but he
[00:04:26] chose to go to Lampedusa. So you see, each
[00:04:30] time he makes decisions that are not necessarily verbal messages but that
[00:04:34] send very, very strong signals. And he also sends signals through his appointments, since last
[00:04:38] May 1st he appointed as bishop in West Virginia, Evelio
[00:04:41] Menjivar Ayala, who is a Salvadoran who entered the United States without papers
[00:04:45] in 1990, already 36 years old, after fleeing the civil
[00:04:48] war. So this is a choice that has
[00:04:51] his first meeting as coach of been interpreted as a message sent to Washington in the midst of the Trump
[00:04:54] administration's expulsion policy, an expulsion policy that is widely
[00:04:58] discussed on our channels. And you may have seen the latest documentary
[00:05:02] by Karina Chabour on the immigration police (ICE) that
[00:05:05] deals with this. And then one last thing, the calendar
[00:05:09] obviously matters, because tomorrow the Church celebrates the... the World
[00:05:13] Day of Migrants and Refugees. Thank you very much,
[00:05:16] Mélina. So another highlight of this morning, this time
[00:05:19] it's taking place on the Left Bank, a meeting notably with
[00:05:22] catechumens. We're going to talk about it right away with Constance Colona Césari.
[00:05:26] Hello, thank you very much for being with us. The Pope is trying to understand
[00:05:30] this surge that some young adults have for
[00:05:34] Catholicism, yes, which produces impressive figures in a country like
[00:05:38] France, a de-Christianized country, the first
[00:05:40] since the 60s. Finally, and therefore
[00:05:44] one that has, we could say, gone through decades of catacombs a bit
[00:05:47] for Rome. We remember Pope John Paul II who said,
[00:05:51] "France, what have you done with your baptism?" Finally, yes, we no longer
[00:05:55] see empty churches, we see a crisis of vocations, and then suddenly,
[00:05:59] for a few years, a tremor first, and then a revival with figures.
[00:06:03] We spoke of 100,000 young
[00:06:05] adults who, not coming from Catholic
[00:06:09] households, turn to the Catholic Church asking for baptism.
[00:06:12] So these are the people we call catechumens. For
[00:06:16] 2026, right at the beginning of the year, it's often at Easter
[00:06:20] that baptisms take place, but we know there are 21,000 new
[00:06:24] catechumens in France, including 1,100 in Paris, all over
[00:06:28] the territory, and Rome is obviously interested. The universal
[00:06:31] Church says, "Well, it's starting again in a country like France,"
[00:06:35] so we are scrutinized as a laboratory country. This
[00:06:39] is one of the reasons that marks the arrival
[00:06:42] of the Pope, who also decided to come and observe this phenomenon, which
[00:06:46] is still exciting for the Church and whose origin no one knows
[00:06:50] and whether it is, above all, durable, because there's
[00:06:54] that too. And this is how we explain it,
[00:06:57] and the French bishops themselves are quite humble when they go to Rome, they
[00:07:01] say, "But it's not us, we don't know where it comes
[00:07:04] from," and that also pleased the Pope, apparently, these human beings. And then
[00:07:07] a time of contemplation for the Pope.
[00:07:11] Yes, exactly. And then, still at the ICP, the Catholic
[00:07:14] Institute located rue de Vaugirard in the former
[00:07:18] Carmelite convent, well, the Pope is in a place of
[00:07:22] memory, and this is more sensitive, I would say. He will
[00:07:25] go and pray in the church, it's not the convent there, it's
[00:07:29] the Saint-Joseph des Carmes church, where
[00:07:33] were, well, massacred during
[00:07:35] the massacres of the Revolution, so in 1792, priests, hundreds
[00:07:39] of priests.
[00:07:50] these massacres and the Pope will go to the place of the
[00:07:53] massacres where the Church finally recognized
[00:07:57] 191 martyrs of the Revolution.
[00:08:00] So it's interesting because we see a relationship between the Church and the
[00:08:04] Revolution, well, finally where they manage to tell each other things,
[00:08:08] including what's bothering them. You will stay with us, we will find you throughout
[00:08:11] the morning. Thank you very much
[00:08:13] Constance. We are going to continue to talk about the revolution since it
[00:08:17] is precisely at the Place de la Révolution, which is now called the Place de la Concorde, that this
[00:08:21] great mass will take place this afternoon. Access opened
[00:08:25] at 9 am, the mass is scheduled for 3 pm. The Pope will descend
[00:08:28] the Champs Élysées at 2:15 pm. The organizers, you know,
[00:08:32] expect a very large crowd. A large cross 4 meters high is
[00:08:36] altar, and it's true that it must be remembered that it was in these places
[00:08:40] that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined,
[00:08:44] as well as a thousand people during the
[00:08:46] Revolution. So it is there that hundreds of thousands of
[00:08:50] people will pray, meditate, and
[00:08:53] receive communion this afternoon. After Paris, the Pope will fly to Lourdes. The
[00:08:57] last Pontiff to go there was Benedict XVI, it was in
[00:09:00] 2008. Leo XIV will notably receive privately seven
[00:09:04] people who are victims of sexual violence in the Church. Roman Sabatier
[00:09:07] and Laura Alor Gali for France. After
[00:09:10] John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Marine is about to meet the
[00:09:14] new Pontiff. I'm eager to know who
[00:09:18] Leo XIV is, we don't know him well. We know he's
[00:09:21] an American Pope, which is already exceptional. A
[00:09:25] trip with his family, with his husband and their five children, to
[00:09:28] mark another event. It's my birthday, the
[00:09:32] day the Pope comes, so I'm very happy and I'm
[00:09:35] in a hurry. I would like you to pray for me because
[00:09:39] I have a motor disability and I
[00:09:42] would like to walk. Bosco, for
[00:09:46] a motor disabled person, Bosco will be able to meet the
[00:09:49] Holy Father after the Sunday Mass. I feel a little
[00:09:52] stressed about meeting the Pope, but at the same time I am joyful. In Perpignan,
[00:09:56] the diocese chartered 11 buses to take the faithful to
[00:10:00] Lourdes, among them, Malia, 21 years old. We
[00:10:03] meet her at the Catechumenate, the catechism for adults,
[00:10:07] where the young woman is preparing for her baptism. What I expect from the trip is still
[00:10:10] to return appeased, to get some
[00:10:14] answers to some of my questions. In total,
[00:10:17] 200,000 people are expected this weekend in
[00:10:20] Lourdes.
[00:10:22] In international news, we continue to follow
[00:10:25] developments in the Middle East. The Houthis have targeted the Saudi capital as well as a
[00:10:28] large city in the southwest. These attacks have been continuous for 10 days and
[00:10:32] have consequences, as you know, on the export of Saudi oil. Crown
[00:10:36] Prince Mohammed bin Salman has requested Donald Trump's intervention, but
[00:10:40] without success for now. The kingdom is also awaiting
[00:10:43] possible military support from its Pakistani and
[00:10:46] Turkish partners.
[00:10:49] Donald Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait
[00:10:53] of Hormuz. The president preferred to publish on his social network a
[00:10:57] map representing the Strait with the mention
[00:11:00] "Trump Strait". The midterm elections in 5 weeks seem
[00:11:03] to influence the strategy chosen, favored in any case
[00:11:07] by Donald Trump. Axelle Simon.
[00:11:10] Have you talked about the war with Iran? Yes. Will there be progress concerning the
[00:11:14] Strait of Hormuz? I think we're going to make excellent progress.
[00:11:18] Announced progress, but it will still be a while. According to the
[00:11:23] on Friday an Iranian proposal to reopen
[00:11:27] the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently blocked, within 7 days. The
[00:11:31] proposal made by Tehran through Qatari mediators
[00:11:34] provided for the reopening of this strategic
[00:11:37] maritime route and the suspension of hostilities in the region, including in
[00:11:41] Lebanon. In return, broader negotiations would have been
[00:11:44] initiated, the United States would have lifted the blockade of Iranian
[00:11:47] ports, unfrozen funds, and renounced oil
[00:11:51] sanctions targeting Iran. Inadmissible for Donald
[00:11:55] Trump. The American president believes, according to the Wall Street Journal, that the Islamic
[00:11:59] Republic will not keep its commitments. The American president
[00:12:02] who would not rule out a resumption of strikes in Iran after the midterm
[00:12:06] legislative elections on November 3rd. Unacceptable
[00:12:09] threats according to the head of Iranian diplomacy.
[00:12:12] Iran accepts neither coercion, nor
[00:12:16] threats, nor intimidation and will not renounce its sovereign rights under
[00:12:19] pressure. Sovereignty is not
[00:12:21] conditional.
[00:12:24] Diplomacy does not mean capitulation and peace
[00:12:27] cannot be built on threats
[00:12:29] of annihilation.
[00:12:33] The deadlock therefore continues on both sides and Donald Trump even
[00:12:36] fueled the fire with this map published on his social
[00:12:40] network which proposes to rename the Strait of Hormuz the
[00:12:43] Trump Strait. The memorandum of understanding signed in June between
[00:12:47] Tehran and Washington provided however for an end to the war,
[00:12:51] to reopen this strategic maritime passage and to hold
[00:12:54] talks on the ultra-sensitive issue of the Iranian
[00:12:57] nuclear program, but no significant progress has been made
[00:13:00] since its signing.
[00:13:04] The floods in Bangkok are stabilized, but the capital is facing
[00:13:07] an extraordinary situation. A state of disaster has been
[00:13:10] declared. Heavy rains have fallen in the last 24 hours, the
[00:13:14] canals are overflowing, the east of the city is the most affected. The
[00:13:17] authorities are working hard to pump out the water. The last flood of this
[00:13:21] magnitude in 2011 caused the death of 500 people and
[00:13:25] damaged millions of homes. Burma is also affected.
[00:30:13] in France, the Pope has already visited a center dedicated to the reception and
[00:30:17] integration of exiled people, it is located in the north of Paris, he
[00:30:21] called for living together in dignity and peace, we find
[00:30:24] on site Mélina Huette, meanwhile
[00:30:27] the faithful are starting to flock to the Place de la Concorde and the
[00:30:31] Champs Élysées. The Pope will celebrate a mass in XXL format
[00:30:35] from 3 PM, he will descend, he will descend pardon
[00:30:39] before that the Champs Élysées, this is one of the highlights of this visit,
[00:30:42] as well as the meeting with catechumens, it will be discussed in a moment with
[00:30:46] Constance Colona