Packing for a pope: Behind the scenes on foreign trips

Papal trips mean vast crowds, high-level diplomatic meetings and a formidable amount of behind-the-scenes preparation, from delicately balanced agendas to complex security protection for the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France from September 25 to 28, which includes events at the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Champs-Elysees, will involve some 15,000 members of the security forces. The groundwork for this visit — the first papal trip to Paris since 2008 — was laid well before it was officially announced. A crowd awaits Pope Leo XIV’s address from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St Peter’s Square during his Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican on September 20, 2026. —AFP Countries invite the pope, but whether or not he visits is based on a range of pastoral and political considerations.

The complex decision “depends heavily on the international context”, a Vatican source told AFP . The Vatican takes into account social and political circumstances, from conflicts to humanitarian crises, as well as the situation of the local church and the history of previous visits. But each pope has his own wish list and the choice of destinations also reflects the papacy’s geopolitical priorities. For example, “John Paul II travelled extensively to eastern European countries to denounce Communism,” the source said. A cyclist rides past a grandstand under construction at Place de la Concorde, with the Obelisk and the Eiffel Tower in the background, in Paris on September 16, 2026, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to France. — AFP In his 12 years as pontiff, the Argentinian Pope Francis favoured the “peripheries” of the Church, from Iraq to Mongolia and Papua New Guinea, while US-born Leo seems more inclined towards Europe and major international…