Pope Leo XIV Closes France Visit With Royals in Metz
Princess Charlene of Monaco wore head-to-toe white to meet Pope Leo XIV in Metz on Monday, Sept. 28, as the pope closed a four-day visit to France.
The color was protocol. Charlene used le privilège du blanc, the custom that allows Catholic queens and princesses to wear white when meeting the pope. Everyone else follows the usual rule. Wear black.
Brigitte Macron did. France's first lady chose black for the same gathering, where she and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, hosted the Monaco royals and Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg near the French-German border, according to Town & Country.
Prince Albert II of Monaco joined his wife in Metz. The couple knows the pope well. They greeted him on the tarmac of the Monaco Heliport in Monte Carlo when he visited the principality on March 28.
In Metz, Pope Leo celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Stephen and spoke to religious and political leaders about migration and international conflicts. The setting was deliberate. Metz is the birthplace of Robert Schuman, one of the founding architects of what became the European Union, and organizers invited all European Union heads of state alongside leaders of Europe's major institutions.
The Metz stop capped a crowded trip. Macron officially welcomed the pope to France on Friday, Sept. 25. That evening, Pope Leo joined 80,000 young people for a prayer vigil at the Stade de France in Paris, the country's national stadium.
Then came the big public turnout. The pope rode down the Champs-Élysées in an open-top popemobile before leading an outdoor Mass at the Place de la Concorde. Organizers estimated the crowd at 700,000 to 800,000 people.
What makes this stand out is the scale. The September trip was the first formal visit to France by a pope in nearly 20 years, according to Reuters. Four days, three major cities and hundreds of thousands in the streets. It ended with a quieter image in Metz. A princess in white, a first lady in black, and a pope asking Europe's leaders to talk.
