PRESS REVIEW– Friday, September 25: There's anticipation and excitement in France as Pope Leo XIV embarks on the first papal visit to France in 18 years. It comes at a time of renewed Catholic faith among young French people. Also, we look at reactions after Italy's new legislation banning full-face Islamic headwear from schools.
Plus: US rapper Macklemore announces a new "Free Palestine" tour that will raise funds for humanitarian groups. It's a huge weekend for French Catholics as Pope Leo XIV arrives for the first papal visit in 18 years.Kudos to **Libération**for an excellent front page – "Habemus Papam", the words traditionally uttered when there is a new pope, transformed to "Habemus Paname" – Paname being the nickname given to Paris by Parisians. Pope Leo arrives this Friday for his four-day visit, including high anticipated evening prayers at Notre-Dame Cathedral this Friday evening.
The French Catholic daily **La Croix**goes with a less inspired, but very warm "Welcome!" to the pope on its front page. One million people are expected to flock to his visit which includes Paris, Lourdes and the eastern city of Metz, where he will speak before French President Emmanuel Macron and other dignitaries.**Le Parisien,**meanwhile, headlines on the man responsible for the pope's visit: Cardinal Aveline. He tells Le Parisien how the visit was organised and why he wanted Pope Leo XIV, a Francophile, to come.
This visit also comes at a time – surprisingly – when more French people are choosing to get baptised, according to **The Wall Street Journal.**France, a staunchly secular nation, has seen an uptick in baptisms. According to the Journal, more than 13,000 adults were baptised at Easter this year– a threefold increase from 2019. The number of documented teen baptisms has risen to over 8,000– a tenfold increase from 2019.
The paper explains this boom with two reasons: getting baptised is now seen as counter cultural to decades of French secularism. Secondly, seeing French Muslims practicing their faith in public spaces is now challenging young Christians to consider how they live out their own faith. Over in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has formally banned some Muslim headscarves from schools in new legislation.In what the conservative paper **Il Giornale**calls "a school bench revolution", the government approved a ban on the burqa and the niqab – but not the hijab– in schools.
It will also impose a 30 percent cap on classes with children without Italian citizenship or who do not speak Italian well in the first year of primary, middle and high school. Meloni said the measures intend to facilitate integration, not segregate – but critics accuse her of pandering to the hard right, ahead of general elections next year. The Italian left has criticised the measures as "kicking immigrant children out of classrooms".
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