Full transcript
0:00Everything was already prepared for
0:02Islam to take over France and push
0:04Catholics out of it once and for all .
0:06They were supposed to take us over by
0:08numbers and force . Even the Notre-Dame
0:11Cathedral burned down , as if
0:12symbolically . That is how we have
0:14viewed France over the last years and
0:16decades . And suddenly , suddenly that
0:19image has changed , which is being
0:21noticed primarily by the Muslims
0:23themselves . In 45 years , France will be
0:27Catholic again . stated an influential
0:30Islamic organization with regret after
0:32the pilgrimage . And its representative
0:36added : " I am terrified when I see this
0:39revival of Catholicism . " And honestly
0:45speaking , it is hard to be surprised by
0:47the Muslims . Pope Leo XIV arrived in
0:53one of the most secular and atheistic
0:56countries in Europe , and he saw
0:57millions of people on the streets of
1:00Paris , nearly 100,000 young people at
1:02the Stade de France , a packed Lourdes ,
1:04and above all , a church that is visited
1:07by more young people every year , while
1:09he spoke in surprisingly unequivocal
1:11language . I have noticed once again
1:17that during pilgrimages , Leo XIV speaks
1:19in much stronger terms than he does
1:22day-to-day in Rome . It was like that
1:24during his pilgrimage to Africa , it was
1:26like that in Spain , and it was like
1:28that now in France . Leo spoke about
1:31Jesus Christ as the only answer to the
1:33deepest human desires . About the
1:37necessity of evangelization and
1:39conversion , about the defense of life
1:41from conception to natural death ,
1:43against euthanasia and surrogacy , and
1:45that in a country that had just
1:47legalized these solutions . Pope Leo XIV
1:50spoke about the family , about
1:52motherhood , about the Christian and
1:54Catholic roots of Europe , and about the
1:56right of Catholics to be present in the
1:59public sphere . Or rather , about the
2:01duty of Catholics to be present there .
2:04Our media , well , I would say they
2:06present all of this in very different
2:08ways . Some try to falsify the image of
2:10this pilgrimage , others want to pass
2:12over the matter in silence , but the
2:14Muslims themselves are not blind . No ,
2:19they are afraid , and their reaction is
2:22all the more interesting because it
2:24truly overlaps with a real and
2:26measurable phenomenon : the rebirth of
2:28interest in Catholicism among young
2:30French people , including some from
2:32Muslim families . But let's start with
2:37that quote I mentioned at the beginning
2:39, that France will be Catholic again .
2:43That was said by the French
2:45organization Miséricorde pour
2:47l'Humanité , an organization that
2:48conducts radical conversion activities
2:51from Islamic positions . And here , these
2:57authors wrote exactly this on their
2:59social media : " I am terrified when I
3:01see all this revival around Catholicism
3:03. I feel like a CIA agent helplessly
3:08watching the return of the Soviet Union
3:10. In 45 years , France will become
3:13Catholic again , and Catholics are
3:15better organized and more determined
3:18than French Muslims . " Those are strong
3:23words , all the more so because they
3:25come from , let's say , the enemy , if we
3:27can call them that . This isn't just
3:31some whim of Catholics or Catholic
3:32pundits ; the Muslims themselves have
3:34noticed it and are afraid of it . This
3:39is a very interesting testimony to the
3:42changes taking place in French
3:43Catholicism and how it is viewed from
3:45the outside . After all , just over a
3:49dozen years ago , we much more
3:50frequently discussed when French
3:52churches would be completely deserted ,
3:55when they would be empty , unnecessary ,
3:57and sold off . But today , today Muslims
3:59are starting to fear whether Catholics
4:01are beginning to regain ground . All the
4:06more so because another phenomenon ,
4:08which I mentioned briefly , is taking
4:10place at the same time . It is estimated
4:14that about 10 % of new Catholics
4:16receiving baptism in France come from
4:18an Islamic background . We are therefore
4:22dealing with a kind of modern
4:24Reconquista in the French style . And
4:28during the papal pilgrimage , this had a
4:31truly symbolic illustration , as Leo XIV
4:34met with Jaw . I hope I am pronouncing
4:38that correctly , a young Catholic from
4:40the Diocese of Nanterre . He comes from
4:43an Islamic family , but as he recounted ,
4:45he was moved by the person of Jesus and
4:48therefore began preparations for
4:50baptism . And even before the pilgrimage
4:56itself , there was a lot of talk in
4:58France about the French actor Mehdi
5:00Jadi , who was also raised in an
5:02Algerian Muslim family , but through
5:04reading the Gospels and a subsequent
5:06experience of faith in the real
5:08presence of Christ in the Eucharist , he
5:10concluded that salvation , truth , and
5:12love are found only in the Catholic
5:14Church , and this famous French actor
5:16was also baptized . And if we take the
5:25ability to mobilize the religious
5:27energy of society as the primary
5:29criterion for the success of a papal
5:32pilgrimage , then the visit of Leo X was
5:34a truly spectacular success . A few days
5:40ago , in the evening , the Champ de Mars
5:42was filled with about 100,000 young
5:44people . And this was not a concert with
5:49some celebrity ; no , it was a prayer
5:50meeting with the Pope . The central
5:54elements were testimonies of faith ,
5:57prayer , relics , a call to holiness ,
5:59adoration , and vocation . And a day
6:03later , well , a day later , something
6:05even bigger happened . These images will
6:07certainly stay with us for a very long
6:09time . When we look back on the
6:13pontificate of Leo XIV , this will
6:15certainly be one of the defining images
6:17, because Leo XV achieved something
6:19that seemed impossible . For a few hours
6:23, the capital of France was filled to
6:26the brim with Catholics . There were
6:28about a million participants in the
6:30Holy Mass and the papal procession in
6:32the area of Place de la Concorde and
6:34the Champs - Élysées . Paris was filled
6:38with Catholics just as it was when John
6:40Paul II visited France decades earlier .
6:45Thus , in Paris alone , over a million
6:47people in total participated in
6:49meetings with Pope Leo XIV . And this
6:52also has a symbolic meaning , because
6:54the Mass took place at Place de la
6:56Concorde . In the very heart of
7:00republican Paris , in a state that has
7:03made secularism one of the foundations
7:05of its political identity , in a place
7:07where psychopaths of the French
7:09Revolution , in the name of human ideals
7:11, murdered people on a mass scale . And
7:17suddenly , there , in that space , a
7:20million people publicly prayed ,
7:22received the sacraments , and manifested
7:24their Catholic faith . Just a few years
7:30ago , the dominant description of French
7:32Catholicism was a narrative of
7:34extinction . And yet , during the visit
7:38of Leo XV , priests were hearing
7:40confessions simply everywhere . Young
7:42people filled the national stadium
7:44everywhere . Well , American media
7:48described it aptly and in their own
7:50style . The great Catholic Comeback . But
7:55perhaps the most important feature of
7:58this pilgrimage was not the number of
8:00people , but the Pope's language ,
8:02because Leo XV did not limit himself to
8:04some socially acceptable vocabulary of
8:07peace , ecology , brotherhood , and
8:09dialogue . Of course , he spoke about
8:11these issues too , but the starting
8:13point was always Christ , always
8:15evangelization , and always faith . Even
8:18on the plane to Paris , he told
8:20journalists that he was going to France
8:22with one goal . In order to show himself
8:24to everyone as a follower of Jesus
8:26Christ and to proclaim the message of
8:28Jesus to the world . At Notre-Dame , he
8:32spoke to young people in an
8:33increasingly religiously indifferent
8:35society . Humanity loses its way when it
8:38claims that God is dead . Without God ,
8:41there is no salvation and we lose the
8:43meaning of our existence . The Pope
8:47clearly stated that the answer to all
8:49of this can only be Christ , crucified
8:51and risen . And he referred to the words
8:55of Saint Paul : " For me , to live is
8:57Christ . " And he had 100,000 young
9:01people repeat with him : " For us , to
9:04live is Christ . " And his address at the
9:09Place de la Concorde was equally
9:11unambiguous . Leo spoke about the desire
9:13for God , which nothing earthly can
9:16satisfy . Material goods , successive
9:19pleasures , entertainment — all this
9:21works only momentarily , but does not
9:23answer the fundamental question of man .
9:25And again he said : " There is only one
9:28answer . Jesus Christ . " And looking at
9:32hundreds of thousands of French people ,
9:34the Pope urged : " Do not keep this faith
9:36in Jesus Christ to yourselves . He
9:41commanded the French to build a renewed
9:43nation based on their own Catholic
9:45roots . And at the end of the homily , he
9:49prayed , that the living water of the
9:53Holy Spirit might pour out over all of
9:55France . Well , it is really hard not to
9:59see the analogy . Of course , with all
10:01the historical differences , but an
10:03analogy to the call of Saint John Paul
10:06II in Warsaw in 1979 year . Let your
10:11Spirit descend . Another Pope seems to
10:15be calling out in a different time and
10:17in a different place in the world . And
10:20you are surprised that the secularists
10:22are in a panic . Especially since the
10:27second strong element of this
10:29pilgrimage is the defense of
10:30traditional Christian anthropology . At
10:36the Elysée Palace , as if facing the
10:38French authorities and President Macron
10:40, Leo XV recalled that the right to
10:42life is the foundation of all other
10:45human rights . If we do not respect this
10:50, we cannot speak of any human rights .
10:53And the Pope listed phenomena which , in
10:55his opinion , result from the
10:57subordination of science and technology
10:59to the logic of desire and profit . And
11:02now listen , what were they ? Genetic
11:06manipulation , surrogate motherhood —
11:08the so-called surrogacy — trade in
11:10human organs , and the possibility of
11:13planning one's own death . And that was
11:17truly extremely clear in a country that
11:20had just legalized euthanasia . And in
11:24Lourdes , in this symbolic place of
11:26human suffering , the Pope went even
11:28further . Among the sick , the disabled ,
11:33and their caregivers , he said that no
11:35law can deprive a person of the
11:37awareness of their own value . The
11:44mission of medicine is to care for the
11:46suffering , not to eliminate the
11:47sufferer , and he uttered one of the
11:49most powerful sentences of the entire
11:51trip . What is legal is not necessarily
11:57moral . We must not accustom society to
12:02the infliction of death as something
12:04normal . And so , the finale of the
12:10Pope's visit in Metz was logical ,
12:12because there Leo XV addressed European
12:14youth and said : " Do not be afraid to
12:16start families and bring children into
12:19the world , and remember to defend the
12:21dignity of every person from the first
12:23moment of life in the womb until the
12:25last breath . " It is hard to find a more
12:32classic , orthodox formulation of
12:34Catholic teaching on life . Moreover ,
12:40Leo XIV also challenged the so-called
12:43French secularism during this trip and
12:45reminded everyone that a Catholic
12:47participating in public life according
12:49to a conscience formed by the Catholic
12:51faith cannot be treated as a threat to
12:53the state for this reason . Authentic
12:59secularism , said Leo XIV , does not
13:01consist in pushing religion out of the
13:03public sphere and education . The state
13:07and religious communities should be
13:09capable of cooperating for the common
13:11good . I hope Barbara Nowacka heard this
13:16as well . And to the French bishops , the
13:20Pope said something even stronger . The
13:23Church co-created the history , culture ,
13:25and identity of France . Therefore , the
13:28voice of the Church has every right to
13:30be heard in the public sphere . By the
13:34way , I made a separate video for you
13:36about what Leo said to the French
13:38bishops . I invite you to watch it here
13:42on this channel . But the Pope also
13:45spoke in a similar language at UNESCO ,
13:47because he pointed out something that ,
13:49in this era of human redefinition ,
13:52sounds almost provocative today : that a
13:54human is first conceived and first born
13:56. And each of us begins life as a child
14:00and receives this life as a gift . We
14:04did not earn it or work for it in any
14:06way . It is a gift from our parents .
14:09Therefore , the first place of life and
14:11bonds of upbringing is the family . That
14:15is why in Metz he linked this
14:17anthropology to the past of Europe . He
14:21spoke of the need to return to the
14:22roots , to the Europe of Robert Schuman .
14:26He spoke of the Christian and Catholic
14:28sources of the European project . Of
14:30course , Leo XV was not proposing to
14:33close Europe to others . He did speak
14:35about welcoming migrants and about
14:37dialogue . That was all there . But what
14:39was in all of this ? Leo XV set a
14:41condition often overlooked today . To
14:45truly meet the other , to be able to
14:48welcome someone , to be able to enter
14:50into dialogue , Europe itself must know
14:52who it is . Certainty regarding one's
14:56own identity is a condition for
14:58conversation with another . A person
15:01coming into our community should , the
15:03Pope said , have the opportunity to get
15:05to know the spirit of the house .
15:10Societies must first rediscover their
15:12own roots rather than amputating them ,
15:14and only then can we speak of
15:16immigrants , of receiving them , and of
15:18our culture . It was all classically
15:22Catholic . Dialogue , yes , but without
15:24losing one's own identity . Openness ,
15:27yes , but not amnesia . Rights , yes , but
15:30rights only with responsibilities . Life
15:33, from conception to death , family and
15:36children not as a burden , but as the
15:38future and foundation of any life . And
15:47the most symbolic moment of the entire
15:49pilgrimage may not even have been a
15:51speech , for after vespers in the
15:53restored Notre-Dame Cathedral , Leo X
15:55stepped out before the temple and
15:57paused before the silver figure of Mary
15:59with the Child , a replica of the famous
16:01Parisian Madonna , one of the treasures
16:04associated with the cathedral that
16:06miraculously survived the catastrophic
16:08fire in 2019 , and then thousands of
16:10people began to sing in Latin . And the
16:21Pope , the Pope wept ; this calm ,
16:24composed , and painfully systematic Leo
16:26X was moved and shed tears . This is
16:33also an image that will stay with us
16:35for a long time . Yes , something is
16:39changing in France . In 2016 , during
16:42Easter , 4,000 adults were baptized in
16:46France , while in 2026 more than 13,000 .
16:51That is more than a threefold increase ,
16:54and to this , one must add more than
16:568,000 teenagers . So , in total during
16:59Easter just this year , 21,386 adults
17:06and young French people came to be
17:08baptized , and year by year there are
17:10more of them , and this growth is
17:11accelerating . Teenagers and young
17:14adults are repairing what is neglected
17:17by their parents of the '68 generation ,
17:19who still do not want to baptize
17:21infants . And that fight continues and
17:24will continue , but today it is
17:26increasingly the Church that emerges
17:28victorious . For generations ,
17:32Catholicism lost people who were
17:34baptized out of habit and simply
17:36stopped practicing . But today , an
17:39increasingly large group of people is
17:41emerging , making the exact opposite
17:43move — a more difficult one — because
17:45they did not inherit the faith , but
17:47chose it themselves . And it was
17:49precisely to them that Leo XIV came and
17:52said : " Yes , Christ is the truth .
17:55Without God , there is no salvation . The
17:58Church needs vocations . Do not be
18:00ashamed of your faith . Start families ,
18:02welcome children . Defend life from the
18:06mother's womb to the last breath . Do
18:10not allow religion to be cast out of
18:12the public sphere and schools .
18:16Evangelize ; convert yourselves and
18:18others . And finally , a brief
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18:39about life after death , about the
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18:54Honestly , without pathos , and without
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