San Francisco Frontiers - Pope warns against losing humanity in 'paradise of machines'

"If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment," Leo said after President Emmanuel Macron welcomed him to the presidential palace, on the first of four days in the country.

On the first official papal trip in 18 years to a proudly secular country that has since 1901 separated church and state, the pope also stressed that "authentic secularity" should not exclude religion.

It "consists not in excluding religion from the public sphere or from education, but in striving to ensure that the state and religious institutions maintain dialogue and join forces in the service of the common good," the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics said.

Politicians have in recent years invoked France's brand of secularism to justify bans on religious symbols including Muslim women's attire in public spaces and schools.

France is just seven months away from the first round of its presidential election to replace Macron, with the anti-immigration far right eyeing its best chance at seizing power in the vote.

- 'Sense of peace' -

After France passed legislation in June granting some adult patients the right to assisted dying, the first US pontiff said he was concerned by trends "that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one's own death".

The pope, whose paternal grandmother was born in France, urged the European nation to remain a "tireless champion of peace" worldwide, as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine drags into its fifth year.

Macron and his wife Brigitte earlier greeted the 71-year-old pope at the airport, where a red carpet was rolled out on the tarmac, as he marked the first official trip by a head of the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI in September 2008.

"I'm travelling to France, as to anywhere else in the world, as a follower of Jesus Christ wanting to proclaim peace, the peace of Christ throughout the world," Pope Leo told reporters on the plane.

He said the message was "particularly important" at the current time.

A million people are expected at events across Paris during the first two days of his trip.

The high point of the apostolic journey will be a giant mass on Saturday, led by the pontiff at Place de la Concorde and adjoining Champs-Elysees.

Pope Leo will also visit Lourdes, a pilgrimage site for Christians worldwide where he will privately meet victims of clerical sex abuse, and Metz, near the German border, where he is to further speak about peace in Europe.

"The pope's visit gives me a sense of peace in a troubled world," said Andree Estienne, 76, adding she could not wait to attend the mass on the Champs-Elysees.

"I don't think I will experience anything of this scale again in my lifetime."

- 'To be near him' -

Later Friday, Leo is to wave to the crowds on a 2.5-kilometre (1.5-mile) popemobile ride to the Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris, where he will be the first pope to inspect renovations following a devastating 2019 fire.

His predecessor Pope Francis -- who visited France three times, but never officially -- did not attend the Gothic masterpiece's reopening in late 2024, when then president-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests.

Carmen Quintana, a 71-year-old Peruvian, said she would be among the crowd.

"We're very happy to be able to be near him," she said of the pontiff, who spent two decades as a missionary in Peru and also holds Peruvian nationality.

Last on his agenda for the day will be a mass prayer and hymns with 80,000 young believers aged 17 to 35 in stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

A relic, believed to be the tunic Jesus wore during the Passion, will have been transported out of the nearby Saint-Denis Cathedral to the stadium for the occasion.

Only around five percent of France's 69 million residents go to Catholic church regularly, a survey last year found.

But while the number of infant christenings has dwindled in recent years, teenage and adult baptisms are on the rise, with thousands choosing to embrace the faith.

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J.Peterson--SFF