Leo XIV’s Journey to France: “Deus Vult”? Or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”?

Peoples and nations—as well as individuals—receive from God a mission according to the designs of His Providence. In relation to France, Pope Gregory IX, in an October 21, 1239 letter to King St. Louis, has these beautiful words: “God, to whom the heavenly legions obey, having established different kingdoms here on earth according to the diversity of languages and climates, has entrusted many governments with special missions for the fulfillment of His plans. And just as He once chose the tribe of Judah above the other sons of Jacob and bestowed special blessings upon it, so, too, did He choose France above all other nations on earth for the protection of the Catholic faith and the defense of religious freedom.”¹

However, like individuals, nations and peoples can also abandon God’s call and turn against it. This is what, unfortunately, happened to France and the other countries of ancient Christendom and practically the whole world, when they adopted an officially secular and anti-Catholic philosophy.²

“God Wills It” or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”?

France can be said to be divided into two mindsets, two philosophies, perhaps two religions, which are expressed in two clashing proclamations.

At the 1095 Council of Clermont, when Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade to liberate the Holy Sepulcher and defend Eastern Christianity persecuted by the Muslims, those present shouted, in a spontaneous and enthusiastic gesture, “Deus Vult!” “God wills it!” “It is the will of God!”³

It is this submission to God’s will, placing it above one’s own, that made the great French heroes and saints fight in defense of the Faith, truth, and country.

In opposition, the trilogy that became famous with the 1789 French Revolution—“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, the motto of the French secularist Republic—expresses a different mindset.

Considering each word of this trilogy in isolation and giving it its meaning in sound philosophy and traditional theology, there is nothing objectionable. But united in the motto that was forged and used as a symbol of an egalitarian and atheistic revolution, the meaning changes. The trilogy must be analyzed in the historical sense in which it was conceived and still retains today.

First Used by Robespierre

According to the website of the Presidency of the French Republic, “the notions of liberty, equality, and fraternity were not invented by the Revolution. Closer ties between the concepts of liberty and equality were frequent during the Enlightenment, particularly with Rousseau and Locke. However, it was not until the French Revolution that they were brought together as a tripartite motto.”⁴

It was precisely Robespierre, a member of the notorious Committee of Public Safety of the French Revolution—responsible for the death of thousands—who, in a December 5, 1790 speech, used the “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” trilogy for the first time.

Speaking on the organization of the National Guards, Robespierre proposed: “XVI. They shall bear on their breasts these engraved words: THE FRENCH PEOPLE, and underneath: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY. The same words shall be inscribed on their flags, which shall bear the three colors of the nation.”⁵

Ideas That Prepare Communism

Therefore, this motto must be analyzed as both a synthesis of Enlightenment rationalism and a symbol of the French Revolution. Numerous popes have done this, beginning with Pius VI in 1791, in a letter to the archbishop of Paris. He was followed in this by several subsequent popes and among them, Pope Pius IX, who denounced the danger, saying: “And as for these corrupt systems and doctrines, it is already well known to everyone that, by misusing the terms liberty and equality, they seek to instill in the masses the pernicious principles of socialism and communism.”⁶

In fact, the French Revolution’s motto appeals to socialists and communists, as can be seen from a publication of the Portuguese Communist Party: “The revolutionary mood that was growing throughout the country . . . nourished by the enlightening action of great French thinkers of the “Enlightenment” such as Voltaire (1684–1778), Montesquieu (1689–1755), Rousseau (1712–1778), Diderot (1713–1784), d’Alembert (1717–1782), Holbach (1723–1789), Helvetius (1715–1771) and others. . . . Their ideas were condensed into the sweeping slogan: ‘Liberty—Equality—Fraternity!’”⁷

Leo XIV’s Visit to France

Concerning France, where Pope Leo XIV was so enthusiastically received by the people,⁸ we find, simultaneously and paradoxically, both an echo of the Deus vult (in the Catholic faithful) and the persistence of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (especially in the authorities).

It is surprising that Leo XIV, although he spoke of France’s “deep Christian roots,” would also praise Renaissance humanism, Enlightenment philosophy, and the motto “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” In his speech to the authorities gathered at the Élysée, the presidential palace, the pope said:

France is a land with deep Christian roots. From the time of Saint Irenaeus and the baptism of Clovis, the soul of the nation has drawn from Christianity a rich spiritual, cultural, intellectual, artistic, and missionary élan that continues to be felt in our world today. So it was that humanism flourished in sixteenth-century France, as a means of uniting the heritage of classical Greece and Rome with the Christian faith. With the great thinkers of the Renaissance, and later of the Grand Siècle, succeeded by those of the Enlightenment, France was responsible for significant advances in our world, including the recognition of human rights grounded in the nature of the human person, particularly religious freedom. This constant focus on the dignity inherent in every person is echoed in your national motto. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are not simply words emblazoned on the front of your public buildings; they refer to universal ethical imperatives that also find in the Gospel message an inexhaustible source of inspiration and fulfillment.⁹

To praise the humanism of the Renaissance—which abandoned the notion of the supernatural and exalted a pagan naturalism as an improvement over medieval philosophy—is not understandable for a pope. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The transcendental, unworldly concept of life, which had till then been dominant, now came into conflict with a mundane, human, and naturalistic view, which centered on nature and man.”¹⁰

It is even more difficult to understand the pope’s praise of the French rationalist Enlightenment, which led to the French Revolution. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy presents the French Enlightenment as follows:

The heart of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment is the loosely organized activity of prominent French thinkers of the mid-decades of the eighteenth century, the so-called “philosophes” (e.g., Voltaire, d’Alembert, Diderot, Montesquieu) …

The Enlightenment is often associated with its political revolutions and ideals, especially the French Revolution of 1789. The energy created and expressed by the intellectual foment of Enlightenment thinkers contributed to the growing wave of social unrest in France in the eighteenth century. The social unrest comes to a head in the violent political upheaval which sweeps away the traditionally and hierarchically structured ancien régime (the monarchy, the privileges of the nobility, the political power of the Catholic Church).¹¹

Finally, to affirm that the words of the motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité “refer to universal ethical imperatives that also find in the Gospel message an inexhaustible source of inspiration and fulfillment” is to fail to consider how the motto was historically forged and how the words that form it were understood during the French Revolution. It is the symbol of the “laïcité” (secularism) of the French Republic, which has persecuted the Church, expelled religious orders and congregations and confiscated the goods of the Church so many times in recent centuries.¹²

As said earlier, every word of the trilogy, understood according to sound philosophy and traditional theology, can have a correct meaning. But as it was conceived during the French Revolution and is still understood today, this trilogy is anti-Catholic.

A Pastoral Care for Conversion

Leo XIV’s praise of the Enlightenment and the revolutionary trilogy was not appropriate from the pastoral perspective, namely, the practical application of the principles and norms of the Catholic Church to lead souls to truth and holiness, bearing in mind that the salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church.¹³

As stated, there were echoes of the Deus vult, not of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” in the enthusiasm of the youth who went to see the Roman pontiff.

France and the World Will Be Converted

Presaging Our Lady’s promise at Fatima, “Finally, My Immaculate Heart will triumph,” Saint Pius X uttered most consoling words about France in his November 29, 1911 allocution. We may hope that they apply to the whole West and the world as well:

A day will come, and we hope it will not be far away, when France, like Saul on the road to Damascus, will be surrounded by a heavenly light and will hear a voice repeating to her, “Daughter, why do you persecute Me?” And she will reply, “Who art thou, O Lord?” And the voice will add, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goad, for by your stubbornness you are ruining yourself.” And she, trembling and astonished, will say, “Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?” And He will say, “Rise up, wash away the filth that has defiled you, reawaken within you the dormant sentiments and the covenant of our alliance, and go, firstborn daughter of the Church, predestined nation, vessel of election, go, as in the past, and carry My name before all the peoples and kings of the earth.”¹⁴

1. Gregory IX, “Letter to Louis IX of France” (Oct. 21, 1239), quoted by St. Pius X in “Parole del Santo Padre Pio X—Pubblicazione dei decreti sulle virtù eroiche di: Giovanna d’Arco, Givoanni Eudes, Francesco de Capillas, Giovanni Teofano Vénard e compagni (Dec. 13, 1908), https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-x/it/speeches/documents/hf_p-x_spe_19081213_decreto-beatificazione.html. [Translations from foreign sources are mine. In quotes, my emphasis is shown in italics, while original emphasis is shown in bold.]
2. See Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (Spring Grove, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, 1993), part 1, chaps. 2 and 3.
3. See René Grousset, The Epic of the Crusades, trans. Noel Lindsay (New York: Orion Press, 1970), 4.
4. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” Elysee.fr, accessed Oct. 2, 2026, https://www.elysee.fr/en/french-presidency/liberty-equality-fraternity.
5. “5 décembre 1790 “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” Robespierre (Discours sur l’organisation des gardes nationales), Gauchemip.org, Apr. 4, 2018, https://www.gauchemip.org/spip.php?article4407. (CAPS in the original.)
6. Pius IX, encyclical Nostis et nobiscum (Dec. 8, 1849), https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/it/documents/enciclica-nostis-et-nobiscum-8-dicembre-1849.html.
7. Partido Comunista Português–Organização Regional de Lisboa, “Liberdade, Igualdade, Fraternidade—A grande Revolução Francesa de 1789 e suas repercussões,” ABC do Marxismo-Leninismo A, no. 4 (1976) (Lisbo: Editorial Avante!), https://www.marxists.org/portugues/tematica/livros/abc-marxismo/a04.htm.
8. See Axel Chouvel, “‘Que Dieu bénisse la France’: Ces 4 jours où Léon XIV a enthousiasmé les Français,” Le Figaro, Sept. 28, 2026, https://video.lefigaro.fr/figaro/que-dieu-benisse-la-france-ces-4-jours-ou-leon-xiv-a-enthousiasme-les-francais-20260928.
9. Leo XIV, “Address of Pope Leo XIV—Meeting with the Authorities, Civil Society, and the Diplomatic Corps at the Élysée Palace (Sept. 25, 2026), Vatican.va, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/september/documents/20260925-francia-autorita.html.
10. Klemens Löffler, “Humanism,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), 7:538, https://archive.org/details/catholicencyclop07herbuoft/page/538/mode/1up .
11. William Bristow, “Enlightenment,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman, (Fall 2023), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2023/entries/enlightenment.
12. See Adrien Dansette, Under the Third Republic, vol. 2 of Religious History of Modern France, trans. John Dingle (New York: Herder and Herder, 1961).
13. Canon 1752 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states: “The salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church, is to be kept before one’s eyes.” Accessed Oct. 11, 2026, https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib7-cann1732-1752_en.html.
14. Pius X, “Allocutio—Habita occasione impositionis b freti novis cardinalibus [Consistorial Allocution Vi ringrazio] (Nov. 29, 1911), in Acta Apostolicae Sedis [Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1911], [year 3, vol. 3], 657, https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-03-1911-ocr.pdf.