The Pope visits Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church in Paris
Pope Leo XIV visited the Institut Catholique de Paris on Saturday, 26 September, to meet with the provincial ecclesial assembly, catechumens and neophytes.
As part of the visit, he went to Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church — a former 17th-century convent located within the university grounds — where he prayed in the Chapel of Saint Anne and paused in prayerful reflection before the Staircase of the Martyrs, which commemorates the 115 clergymen killed in 1792 during the French Revolution.
The tomb of Frédéric Ozanam is located in the crypt of the church.
Aleteia asks: What is the significance of this visit to Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes within the Pope’s busy schedule during his visit to Paris?
Father Yannick Soufflet, rector of Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church, replies:
We suggested to the Archbishop of Paris, Archbishop Ulrich, that he invite the Pope here for several reasons: because this is a highly prestigious institution of higher education, because the provincial ecclesial assembly meets here regularly and, from a spiritual and more personal perspective for the Pope, because we thought of what he had said on the plane when returning from Lebanon last December about Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. I myself only discovered his existence at that time. We are delighted to welcome him and to show him the places where Brother Lawrence lived.
I would also like to add that among the important figures associated with this place is Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, whose tomb is located in the crypt of the church. He was a professor of literature at the Sorbonne in the 19th century and one of the sources of Christian social engagement and of the Church’s social teaching at that time. For Pope Leo XIV, who chose his name in reference to Leo XIII, the father of the Church’s modern social teaching, I believe that the roots of this tradition can be traced precisely to this place, to this church.
That afternoon, during his homily at Place de la Concorde, the Holy Father explicitly mentioned, among others, Saint Vincent de Paul and Frédéric Ozanam as men whose hearts were sensitive to the needs of others.
Pope Leo XIV during his visit to Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church in Paris. Photograph published by Vatican News.