Pope Leo XIV visited the Principality of Monaco on Saturday, urging the tax haven’s wealthy residents to “put your prosperity at the service of law and justice.”
Monaco, the world’s second-smallest country after Vatican City, was encouraged by Leo to make positive use of its “gift of smallness.” He is the first pope to visit the microstate since Pope Paul II in 1538.
The pope was welcomed at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene, the short trip from Rome taking about 90 minutes. On arrival Leo was heard saying they were three minutes late. Other members of the royal family awaited at the palace, with women dressed in black and covering their hair according to Vatican protocol; Charlene instead wore white, a privilege reserved for certain Catholic female royals.
Inside the palace, Leo met the prince and princess and presented Albert with a mosaic from the Vatican studio depicting St. Francis of Assisi, noted for renouncing wealth to aid the poor. The pope also visited Monaco’s cathedral and celebrated a Mass in a nearby sports stadium.
From the palace balcony, the American pope delivered an address in French condemning “unjust configurations of power, structures of sin that dig chasms between poor and rich, between the privileged and the rejected, between friends and enemy.” He called for wealth to be directed toward law and justice, especially amid escalating global conflicts and “the logic of omnipotence” that he said imperils peace.
Monaco remains one of the few European countries with Catholicism as the official state religion, and Prince Albert has in recent years defended Catholic doctrine on an increasingly secular continent. Last year Albert blocked a bill to legalize abortion, citing the role of Catholicism in society, though the move had limited practical effect since abortion is a constitutional right in neighboring France.
Albert said the pope’s visit underscored Monaco’s place in the Catholic world. “This visit is a powerful sign testifying to the principality’s importance within the Catholic Christian world,” he told French newspaper Nice-Matin.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko