This morning, on the aircraft carrying him to France, the Holy Father Leo XIV, as is his custom, went to greet the media representatives accompanying him on the papal flight.

The following are the words of greeting addressed by the Pope to those present:

Greeting of the Holy Father

Grazie! Buongiorno, a tutti!
Bonjour!
Good morning!

As we say in English, “welcome on board!” I am happy to see all of you this morning and happy to greet you briefly on this leg of the trip. A special mention I would like to make for those of you who were travelling with me when we returned to Rome from Spain. I want to apologize personally for an incident that I had nothing to do with but which, I know, left a number of you unhappy with the fact that we could not have the flight back together to Rome.

So I want to greet all of you sincerely and to thank you for your coverage of this trip to France, concerning which, as you know from the press briefing that you already received, there is a number of very important topics. I am above all travelling to France, as to anywhere else in the world, as a follower of Jesus Christ wanting to proclaim peace, the peace of Christ throughout the world. It is a message which at this time, as we all know, is particularly important.

So thank you for being here, thank you for the work you are doing. I look forward to seeing you during the trip and we will have an opportunity to speak a little bit on the return. Thank you very much.