VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV will travel on Saturday (March 28) from Vatican City, the world’s smallest country, to Monaco, the second smallest — linking two Catholic states whose global influence far exceeds their size.
In a one-day trip totaling nine hours, Leo will become the first pope in the modern era to visit Monaco. While the country is often associated with wealth and luxury, the papal visit is expected to highlight themes of peace, multilateralism and ecology.
“This trip will offer the pope an opportunity to reflect on the role of Europe,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni while meeting with Vatican journalists on Wednesday. Leo will address “the responsible use of wealth and influence” at a time when Europe and the rest of the world are faced by war, polarization and conflict, Bruni said.
“It’s a small country, and small countries can have a great role and open a big horizon in light of the problems of the world,” he added.
Extending just over 0.81 square miles and with a population of about 38,000 people, Monaco exerts an outsized influence in Europe and the world. The per-capita gross domestic product exceeds $240,000, and its residents — of whom 30% are millionaires — pay no personal income tax. Home to the famed Monte-Carlo Casino, the country is strongly associated with gambling, a hobby Leo cast aside while a missionary in Peru, according to his brother, John Prevost.
“We used to enjoy going to the boat and gambling,” Prevost said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter late last year, adding that after Leo become a missionary he would say: “Nuh-uh, it’s a waste. There’s better things you could do with your money.”
Monaco has approximately 70,000 jobs and employs citizens mostly from neighboring France and Italy, as well as 150 other countries. About 82% of the population is Catholic, and Catholicism is the state religion.
Reflecting on Monaco’s diverse cultural makeup, the pope’s “mission is to bring the Gospel, strengthen the faith and spread a message of peace and of the dignity of the human person,” said Archbishop Dominique-Marie David of Monaco, in an interview with Vatican News. “It is therefore likely that the echo of such a visit will go beyond the borders of our small state.”
The archbishop said the papal visit will also recognize the “very active” charities operating in the country and beyond its borders.
Leo’s visit “is a dream come true,” said Deacon Robert Ferrua, president of the Catholic charity Caritas Monaco, in an interview with Religion News Service. Pushing back against “the false image” of Monaco being a country of and for the wealthy, Ferrua underlined the challenges facing residents. One is loneliness, which he said the church is attempting to address.
He also pointed to his organization’s efforts to offer assistance during natural disasters in other countries, and with immigrants crossing into France and Italy. The charity network also has missions in the Holy Land, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Sudan, he said, that “have deeply marked us, and we suffer greatly from the inequalities that exist between populations.”
Prince Albert II of Monaco formally invited Leo to the country on Jan. 17, after having invited his two immediate predecessors who didn’t take up the offer.
In November of last year, the Catholic prince vetoed a bill seeking to legalize abortion in the country — echoing the late King Baudouin of Belgium, who temporarily renounced the throne in 1990 to oppose an abortion law. Baudouin is being considered for sainthood.
“It is well known that the Holy Father and His Serene Highness Prince Albert II share many commitments: particular attention to respect for human life from its beginning to its end; concern for integral ecology and the preservation of our ‘common home’; and a shared passion for sport and what it represents for humanity,” the Monaco Archdiocese said in a statement after the trip’s announcement.
The prince also has embraced environmental initiatives and activities, financing ecological projects around the world. Leo, drawing on a priority of his predecessor, Pope Francis, was the first pope to celebrate a special Mass for creation and has made numerous appeals for the protection of the environment.
Pope Leo’s first stop in Monaco will be at the Prince’s Palace, where he will have a private meeting with the royals before delivering a joint speech from the palace balcony.
Prince Albert’s mother, the famous American-born actress, Princess Grace Kelly, also shared Pope Leo’s devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii. The prince made a pilgrimage to the shrine in Pompeii in May 2025, shortly after Leo was installed as pope. The pontiff will visit the shrine on May 8, to mark the first-year anniversary of his pontificate.
In 2027, the Archdiocese of Monaco will celebrate its 140th anniversary and the 780th anniversary of the country’s first parish. But while there are about 29,000 Catholics living in Monaco, only 6% to 8% are regular Mass-goers.
“Despite the privileged position guaranteed by a Catholic state, a sore point, as in many other European dioceses, remains a form of secularization of society,” said Abbé Christian Venard, the episcopal vicar for communications of the Monaco Archdiocese, in a recent interview with EWTN News. He pointed to a decline in younger generations continuing in their faith as they grow up, and dwindling youth engagement.
But the diocese this year is celebrating 70 new catechumens, who are converts or people returning to the faith, mostly young men and women who are being guided toward the Catholic sacraments of baptism, confession, First Communion and confirmation.
After his visit to the palace, the pope will address Catholics in Monaco during a prayer service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, followed by a meeting with catechumens and young people. Leo’s final engagement in the country will be at the Louis II Stadium, where he will say a public Mass to Catholics from Monaco and beyond.
Leo will leave Monaco on Saturday evening via helicopter and return to the Vatican the same day.
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