Pope Leo made a one-day trip to Monaco on Saturday (March 28) becoming the first pontiff in nearly five centuries to visit the wealthy Mediterranean enclave on the French Riviera.
He arrived after a 90-minute helicopter ride from the Vatican and met first with Prince Albert, Monaco's head of state and son of the late Hollywood star Grace Kelly.
The second smallest state in the world after the Vatican, and one of the last countries with Catholicism as the state religion, Monaco is globally known as a haven for billionaires and their luxury yachts.
In his speech at Albert's residence, Leo urged Monaco's residents to share their wealth and help those in need. "In God's eyes, nothing is received in vain!" he told crowds. "Every good placed in our hands... bears an intrinsic need not to be held back, but to be shared, so that everyone's life may be better."
Later, in a meeting with local Catholics, the pope appeared to praise Albert's decision last year to veto a Monaco bill that would have legalised abortion, firmly opposed by the Church.
Albert's 2025 veto was largely symbolic, as abortion is a constitutional right in surrounding France.
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.