An estimated 800,000 people have gathered in central Paris to see Pope Leo XIV at an outdoor mass on Saturday.
The pope will meet seven French victims of abuse by Catholic clergy on Sunday as his four-day, three-city tour of France continues.
Crowds stretched the length of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris as Pope Leo urged Catholics to find happiness in faith, not material things.
The outdoor mass on Saturday was the biggest event of his visit to France, with an estimated 800,000 people attending, about 200,000 more than the number who had registered in advance.
Chants of "Leo, Leo" and "Long live the Pope" echoed down the roughly 2-kilometre tree-lined boulevard, from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, as people pressed against security barriers for a glimpse of Leo as he arrived in an open-top Popemobile.
The vehicle paused often as Leo blessed people with disabilities, children and babies passed forward by volunteers.
Attendees included Brigitte Macron, the French president's wife, far-right leader Marine Le Pen Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chair of French luxury group LVMH.
The pope warned in a speech on Friday at the Paris headquarters of the UN culture and education body UNESCO, that the UN and other multilateral groups were in crisis.
Although the French Bishops' Conference points to an increase in baptisms of adults, including a record 21,000 last Easter, a report published by the official statistics agency, INSEE, showed that only 25 per cent of French 18 to 49-year-olds identified as Catholic, compared with 43 per cent a decade earlier.