When Pope Francis touched down on French soil for the first time in his papacy with a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg last November, Ms. Royal was the senior French official there to greet him.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Pope Francis might turn out to be one of the most popular figures in the world today.
But as the Pope has a long arm, which might reach me in France, I have gone a little out of the way to tell him the plain truths contained in these pages.
The pope is a very... passionate man. He likes to get out with the people, and with that comes a large security risk.
There is a certain dignity to being French.
To be honest, I don't really care about any pope. It's not something I think about much, to be quite honest with you.
Romanists tell us that the Pope is the vicar of Christ; that he is his successor as the universal head and ruler of the Church on earth. If this is so, he must be a Christ.
I love France. The French respect your privacy.
It is difficult to convey the excitement I first felt when it was revealed that His Holiness Pope Francis was invited to Washington D.C. to address the world from the floor of the House of Representatives.
I am the most un-French Frenchman you will ever meet.
The one and only time I met Pope Benedict XVI was when he was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.