Bombay Durpun - Francis celebrates mega-mass in first-ever papal visit to Corsica

The ceremony, attended by around 9,000 in person and watched by as many again on giant screens, according to local authorities, was the high point of a one-day trip that saw Francis intervene on issues from France's state secularism to calling for peace in the Middle East.

"Everything is mixed together, solemnity, sincerity, emotions," said Fabienne Mazza, one of 300 singers who took part in the mass. "His being here makes managing to control our emotions stressful."

Francis had arrived in the papal plane on Sunday morning before moving through the packed streets of Ajaccio in his popemobile, blessing children, a 108-year-old woman and even a pizza held out by an enterprising restaurant owner.

Cries of "evivva u papa" ("long live the pope" in Corsican) could be heard from the crowd.

With a bruise still visible on his face from a fall a few days ago, Francis nevertheless appeared in good spirits, with a ready smile throughout the day's events.

Local authorities said around 12,000 people had turned out to greet the pope on the streets.

"This is exceptional, I'm moved, it's a magical moment, a one-off chance," said Solene Pianacci, a 44-year-old school head, at one of Francis' earlier stops at the cathedral in Corsican capital Ajaccio.

The 87-year-old pontiff's first stop was making closing remarks at a congress on religion in the Mediterranean.

He called for "a concept of secularity that is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic".

The remarks touched on a sensitive topic for France. Strict state secularism was originally introduced to curb the influence of the Church on public life, but is now more commonly deployed against symbols of Islam such as the Muslim headscarf or hijab.

Francis later called for peace "throughout the Middle East" but also for "the Ukranian people and the Russian people", as well as offering prayers for cyclone-stricken French Indian Ocean territory Mayotte.

- Macron meeting -

Ajaccio was decked out in decorations in the papal colours, yellow and white, while cars had been banished from central streets with parking bans.

Around 2,000 police reinforcements were sent to Ajaccio to beef up security.

Francis's short trip comes just a week after he snubbed the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris five years after a devastating fire -- attended by world leaders including Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.

But he agreed to the Corsica trip hosted by the island's popular, media-savvy cardinal, 56-year-old Francois-Xavier Bustillo.

Wearing a pink robe traditional for the third Sunday of Advent, Francis thanked Bustillo during mass for "this whole day when (he had) felt as if I was at home".

The cardinal responded that the visit had been a "true blessing for Corsica", where the local Church says around 90 percent of the 350,000 residents are Catholic.

Francis' final appointment after mass was a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron at the airport ahead of his departure.

In what may have been a pointed gift, Macron presented the pope with a book detailing the restoration of Notre-Dame, news channel BFM reported.

Some have seen that as a sign of his disapproval of French policy changes away from Church doctrine during his papacy, including on gay marriage and an ongoing public debate about assisted dying.

Francis's defenders highlight that the pontiff, concerned with the world's marginalised people, largely shuns capital cities and sumptuous receptions.

- No to 'divisions' -

The Corsica visit was his 47th overseas trip since his 2013 election and the third in 2024.

Several of those visits have been around the Mediterranean, from the Greek island of Lesbos to Malta and Sicily.

But this is the first visit by a pope to Corsica, a French region with a distinctive identity, fierce independence movement and a special constitutional status currently under discussion between Paris and local elected officials.

The message comes as a new far-right Corsican nationalist movement, Mossa Palatina, campaigns to "reaffirm the primacy of Catholicism" and ensure that "Corsica never becomes another Lampedusa" -- the Italian island where many migrants hoping to reach Europe have landed.

The pope himself has long advocated for welcoming migrants.

G.Radhakrishnan--BD