The pope will be in Marseilles on September 23. It will go up the avenue du Prado from the sea to the Vélodrome stadium.

“exceptional symbolic significance”

The city of Marseille and the diocese announce it in a press release. The people of Marseille will be able to try to see the sovereign pontiff in a chair and in bones on the avenue du Prado. The papamobile (the Pope’s car)will leave from the Georges Pompidou promenade, by the sea, and will head towards the velodrome stadium, where he will celebrate a mass. Marseille residents will be able to follow the celebration on giant screens installed all along the avenue. An event which “will have exceptional symbolic significance”, enthuses the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan on social networks.

The ideal place to host a Papamobile route

“Anyone who wishes will be able to come and welcome Pope Francis on the avenue du Prado [from 3:30 p.m.] and follow the celebration on giant screens,” the Archbishop of Marseille, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, said on Sunday. . “Avenue du Prado, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Vélodrome stadium, was the ideal place to host a Papamobile route, and we worked together with the Diocese and the Prefect of Police so that tens of thousands of Marseille residents to be able to enjoy this exceptional moment together, in complete safety,” underlined the center-left mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan. The Pope will arrive on Friday September 22 and leave the next day. He is also due to meet on this occasion with President Emmanuel Macron. The question of migration will be at the center of this papal visit to Marseille, an emblematic port in the history of population flows towards Europe, with in particular a tribute to migrants. Pope Francis is also expected to address the issue of inequality during his stay in France’s second city, which has some of the poorest neighborhoods in Europe.