A Pope in Paris, and the Vatican's Careful Distance

Le Monde reports that President Emmanuel Macron faces strained relations with the Vatican ahead of a visit to Paris by Pope Leo XIV. The newspaper describes a French head of state who has placed unusual importance on his relationships with popes since taking office, and a Holy See that has at times read his invitations, breaches of protocol and displays of familiarity as attempts to instrumentalise the relationship.

The story is French, but its subject is the Holy See, and the Holy See sits inside Rome. Papal diplomacy is one of the few forms of international influence that operates from Italian territory, and the world's press covers it as such. When a European head of state is judged to be courting or straining against the Vatican, the readout is written in Rome.

Le Monde does not report the substance of what divides the two sides, nor does it describe the programme of the visit. It reports the temperature: a relationship the paper characterises as difficult, in a period when the French president is seeking proximity and the Vatican is guarding its distance.