Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco meets with Saint John Paul II at the Vatican in 1978. As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit Monaco March 28, 2026, Americans will no doubt be reminded o

STORY: Pope Leo met on Saturday (March 28) with the Monegasque Catholic community, catechumens and youth, as part of his one-day trip to the microstate on the French Riviera. Leo is the first pope in nearly five centuries to visit the wealthy Mediterranean enclave. The Vatican said he wanted to show that small countries can make an outsized impact on the world stage. In a meeting with local Catholics in the Cathedral of Monaco, the pope appeared to praise Albert's decision last year to veto a Monaco bill that would have legalized abortion, firmly opposed by the Church. Leo urged the Catholics to continue speaking up "in defense of the human person," using Church terminology often invoked to oppose abortion and the death penalty. Albert's 2025 veto was largely symbolic, as abortion is a constitutional right in surrounding France. In a second address outside the Chapel of St Devota, Leo encouraged young people to make room for love by stepping back from the frenzy of social media. He also referred to St Carlo Acutis, venerated as the patron of the internet. Leo's events in Monaco were marked by all the usual protocol and pomp of a papal tour abroad. Crowds, however, were relatively thin. Few lined the streets as he toured the 2.08 square kilometre (0.8 square mile) country in an open-air popemobile. The pope's visit to Monaco is only his second outside Italy, but opens what is expected to be a busy year of travel. He will undertake an ambitious, four-country tour of Africa in April, and is also due to make a week-long visit to Spain in June.

MONACO Prince Rainier III was reunited in death with his beloved Princess Grace on Friday in Monaco's cathedral, with an emotional and pomp-filled funeral at the site where the two began their fairy-tale marriage nearly half a century ago.