Pope prays at Lourdes after huge Paris mass

The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades. Crowds greeted the pope's arrival at the grotto © Ed JONES / AFP In the southwestern pilgrimage town the US pontiff prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 to a peasant girl, later Saint Bernadette.Months of ahead of a presidential election with the far-right surging and immigration high on the agenda, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to "obtain for France wise and generous leaders... eager to serve the common good". Catholics say the Virgin Mary appeared in the cave in 1858 © Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP "May they make her (France's) voice heard in promoting the defence of fundamental human rights and peace in the world, rejecting the mentality of war once and for all."AFP reporters saw him perform the rituals observed by the many pilgrims to the cave: touching the rock, lighting a candle and drinking spring water.On Sunday, Leo will meet privately with seven victims of clerical sex abuse. A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of...