STORY: Pope Leo met on Saturday (March 28) with the Monegasque Catholic community, catechumens and youth, as part of his one-day trip to the microstate on the French Riviera.

Leo is the first pope in nearly five centuries to visit the wealthy Mediterranean enclave. The Vatican said he wanted to show that small countries can make an outsized impact on the world stage.

In a meeting with local Catholics in the Cathedral of Monaco, the pope appeared to praise Albert's decision last year to veto a Monaco bill that would have legalized abortion, firmly opposed by the Church.

Leo urged the Catholics to continue speaking up "in defense of the human person," using Church terminology often invoked to oppose abortion and the death penalty.

Albert's 2025 veto was largely symbolic, as abortion is a constitutional right in surrounding France.

In a second address outside the Chapel of St Devota, Leo encouraged young people to make room for love by stepping back from the frenzy of social media. He also referred to St Carlo Acutis, venerated as the patron of the internet.

Leo's events in Monaco were marked by all the usual protocol and pomp of a papal tour abroad. Crowds, however, were relatively thin. Few lined the streets as he toured the 2.08 square kilometre (0.8 square mile) country in an open-air popemobile.

The pope's visit to Monaco is only his second outside Italy, but opens what is expected to be a busy year of travel. He will undertake an ambitious, four-country tour of Africa in April, and is also due to make a week-long visit to Spain in June.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: MONACO, MONACO (MARCH 28, 2026) (TV MONACO - Must on-screen courtesy "Direction de la Communication 2026", no re-use after 0900GMT March 31, 2026, no archive)

1. VARIOUS OF POPE LEO LEAVING PRINCE’S PALACE ON POPEMOBILE AMIDST CHEERING CROWD

2. POPE BLESSING BABY

3. POPE LEAVING ON POPEMOBILE

4. AERIAL VIEW OF CATHEDRAL OF OUR LADY IMMACULATE OF MONACO

5. POPE ARRIVING AT CATHEDRAL

6. POPE GREETING PRINCE ALBERT II AND PRINCESS CHARLENE

7. CROWD INSIDE CATHEDRAL WAITING FOR CEREMONY

8. VARIOUS OF POPE WALKING INTO CATHEDRAL

9. CHOIR SINGING

10. PRINCE ALBERT AND PRINCESS CHARLENE STANDING IN CHURCH

11. (SOUNDBITE) (French) POPE LEO, SAYING (SOUNDBITE CONTINUES OVER SHOT OF CLERGY SITTING NEXT TO POPE):

"Bring to everyone the light of the Gospel so that the life of every man and every woman may be defended and encouraged, from conception to its natural end; offer new points of reference capable of stemming these waves of secularism that risk reducing the human person to individualism and basing social life on the production of wealth."

12. VARIOUS OF CHOIR SINGING

13. VARIOUS OF POPE GIVING BLESSING

14. CHOIR SINGING

15. POPE LEAVING ALTAR

16. POPE SHAKING HANDS WITH PRINCE ALBERT AND PRINCESS CHARLENE

17. AERIAL VIEW OF SAINTE-DEVOTE CHAPEL

18. CROWD WAITING FOR POPE’S ARRIVAL

19. AERIAL VIEW OF SAINTE-DEVOTE CHAPEL

20. POPE ARRIVING IN POPEMOBILE

21. TEENAGERS WAITING FOR POPE WITH PHONES IN THEIR HANDS

22. POPE LEAVING POPEMOBILE AND WALKING TOWARDS CHAPEL

23. CROWD IN FRONT OF CHAPEL CHEERING

24. VARIOUS OF POPE WALKING TO SEAT

25. (SOUNDBITE) (French) POPE LEO, SAYING:

"Monaco is a magnificent country, but it is you who bring out its true beauty, when you know how to look into the eyes of those who are suffering or those who feel invisible amidst the city’s lights. This is how Saint Devota found the strength to give her life to the very end, and this is how Saint Carlo Acutis lived his path to holiness, leaving a trail of light even in the online world."

26. CROWD CHEERING

27. POPE WALKING AWAY AND SHAKING HANDS WITH CROWD

28. AERIAL VIEW OF POPE LEAVING IN POPEMOBILE