600,000 sign up for Pope Leo’s Paris Mass as organizers expand route

As France puts the finishing touches on preparations for Pope Leo XIVʼs visit, excitement is building across a nation that one French cardinal says is resisting secularization.

Nearly 600,000 people registered for the open-air papal Mass at the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées before sign-ups closed on Sept. 16, according to Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris . Registration was encouraged but not required. The huge response forced organizers to expand the security perimeter well beyond the original footprint.

“You responded in great numbers to the Holy Fatherʼs invitation to come and pray with him,” Ulrich said in a statement.

Demand built fast: When registration opened Aug. 10, more than 200,000 people signed up for the Paris Mass in the first few hours. All 80,000 places for the youth vigil at the Stade de France on Sept. 25 were claimed within hours. Nearly 300,000 registrations were recorded across both Paris events in the first 24 hours, according to Zenit .

Gen. Hervé Wattecamps, the general coordinator appointed by the Archdiocese of Paris, told French media that 8,000 new registrations were arriving daily in the final stretch.

The diocese has set up a…