Song for Pope Leo XIV's visit to France will raise funds for Pontifical Mission Societies

The Pontifical Mission Societies in France will receive all the royalties from the official song of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the country, "Pour que le monde ait la vie" (So That the World May Have Life). The composer is the Catholic singer Grégory Turpin, who performs the song as a duet with the French singer Natasha St-Pier. The song will be the musical thread running through the main moments of the visit, in particular the prayer vigil with 80,000 young people at the Stade de France in Paris and the visit to the Shrine of Lourdes.

The song belongs to a genre known in French as pop-louange, or pop-praise, and its lyrics move between prayer and proclamation of the Gospel. One passage reads: "You who dwell in our hearts, like a light that remains, you light up the whole earth and reach into our depths." Another says: "You stretch out your hand to wounded hearts, to those whom the night has broken." Other French Christian artists took part in the recording, among them Fratoun, members of the groups Praise, Cathoglad and Christatus, and Vinz le Mariachi.

Every play raises money for the missions

Turpin explained the aim of the project to the Fides news agency. "When I heard about the pope's visit, like many others, I wanted to do something," he said. He added that "throughout this project, I have tried to put myself at the service of the Pontifical Mission Societies and of the event itself." Every play, download and broadcast of the song raises money for the Church's missionary work around the world.

This is not the first time Turpin has worked with the Pontifical Mission Societies. He has taken part in several projects combining music and the proclamation of the Gospel, including an evangelizing tour in Benin.

Faith and daily life

Turpin also spoke about the generational context of the project. "For a long time, we tended to separate our professional life from our Christian life," he said. Younger generations today, he said, are urgently seeking consistency: "More and more, young people want to make a connection between their faith, their work, their mission and the way they are present in the places where they live."

He said he conceived the song with that in mind: a piece of music that would be professional, evangelistic and charitable at the same time.