How Pope Leo XIV’s popemobiles are getting to France
Pope Leo XIV will travel to France from September 25‑28, visiting Paris, Lourdes, and Metz, using two popemobiles and a golf cart for crowd greeting. The Vatican is sending two popemobiles and a golf cart to France; the popemobiles are fully electric Mercedes‑Benz G‑Class vehicles weighing several tons. The vehicles will be transported to France by truck, arriving a few days before the Pope and stored until needed, rather than flown by cargo plane. Local French authorities will move the vehicles between sites, using trucks for the journey between Paris, Lourdes, and Metz.
13 days ago
Pope Leo XIV’s three crowd-facing vehicles—a pair of electric Mercedes-Benz G-Class popemobiles and a golf cart—will be transported to France by truck ahead of his September 25–28 visit, rather than flown or driven from the Vatican. French authorities will then move the vehicles between Paris, Lourdes, and Metz.
The Vatican is sending two popemobiles and one golf cart to France. The two popemobiles are intended to support the Pope’s appearances in Paris and Metz while providing a backup vehicle in case one develops mechanical problems.
Leo XIV is expected to use the popemobiles during public tours on September 25 in Paris and September 28 in Metz, as well as possibly during Masses at the Place de la Concorde and in Lourdes.
The golf cart is likely to be used during the youth vigil at Paris’s Stade de France, where a smaller vehicle is considered more suitable for greeting people in a stadium setting.
The popemobiles currently used by Leo XIV are fully electric Mercedes-Benz G-Class vehicles weighing several tons. Their size, specialized modifications, and limited battery range make them unsuitable for the roughly 890-mile road journey from the Vatican to Paris.
The vehicles will not be flown to France on a cargo aircraft, despite reports suggesting that possibility. Instead, the Vatican is arranging for them to be transported by truck and delivered several days before the Pope’s arrival.
The vehicles will be stored at an undisclosed location before the visit. Once they are in France, local authorities will oversee their transport between the various destinations, also using trucks.
The vehicles carry the distinctive “SCV 1” license plate, standing for Status Civitatis Vaticanae 1, or “Vatican City State 1.”
Road transport is generally preferred when the destination is relatively close to Italy and accessible by land. Leo XIV’s popemobile was transported by truck for his March 2026 visit to Monaco.
For more distant or difficult-to-reach destinations, the Vatican has used air transport. The vehicles were flown to Africa in April 2026 and to Spain in June, with an Airbus A400M used for the Spain trip.
In some cases, the Vatican avoids transporting a vehicle altogether by having a host country modify one locally. During Pope Francis’s 2016 visit to Mexico, the Mexican people presented him with a Dodge Ram 1500 Classic converted into a popemobile. The vehicle later carried Francis’s coffin from the Vatican to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in April 2025.
Popemobiles are used mainly for public appearances. For routine travel during foreign visits, popes generally use cars supplied by the host country, which also carry the “SCV 1” plate.
Whereas Francis often selected modest cars such as the Fiat 500, Leo XIV has generally favored larger vehicles, including passenger vans and spacious sedans.
Investigate Vatican transport protocols for papal visits
Vatican transport protocols for papal visits are best understood as a multi-agency system combining papal-household planning, diplomatic coordination, security, transport logistics, and pastoral hospitality. The available material confirms the governing responsibilities and principles, but not classified operational details such as convoy formations, routes, vehicle specifications, or contingency procedures.
The Prefecture of the Papal Household is the central Vatican office for planning and executing papal ceremonies—apart from their strictly liturgical aspects—and for arranging audiences, official receptions, and visits. It consults the Secretariat of State when circumstances require it and makes arrangements for visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.
For travel outside the Vatican, the system relies heavily on cooperation with the host country. Italian police services support pastoral visits within Rome, visits to Italian parishes and institutions, and apostolic journeys in Italy. Pope John Paul II also explicitly thanked the Italian Air Force’s 31st Wing for its collaboration in transporting him during his apostolic ministry.
This indicates a division of responsibility:
Security is treated as an enabling condition for the Pope’s pastoral mission, not merely as a protective function. The Vatican Public Security Inspectorate is responsible for protecting the Pope, his collaborators, pilgrims, and tourists, while maintaining order during major and sometimes unpredictable events.
For large papal events, the security task includes:
Italian road and railway police contribute through traffic regulation, prevention, emergency assistance, and accident response. Pope Francis described their work as requiring both enforcement and public education because hurried or irresponsible road use can endanger others.
The sources therefore suggest that a papal visit requires route security, crowd management, traffic control, and emergency preparedness, but they do not disclose exact security protocols.
Air transport is an established element of apostolic travel. The Italian Air Force’s 31st Wing has historically assisted the Pope’s worldwide ministry by providing air-transport capabilities.
Transport personnel also support the movement of supplies and equipment. Pope Francis described transport and material units as responsible for coordinated logistical operations, including the movement and distribution of goods, humanitarian materials, and supplies during emergencies.
For a papal journey, this implies logistical planning beyond the Pope’s personal vehicle: personnel, liturgical materials, communications equipment, medical support, baggage, and other mission-related resources must be moved and synchronized. The supplied sources, however, do not identify which agency handles each category during a specific journey.
Transport is integrated with ceremonial protocol. The papal household’s staff prepare spaces, organize arrivals, and manage formal greetings. Pope Leo XIV summarized their service with three verbs: “arrange, welcome, greet.” He emphasized detailed preparation, dignified reception, and equal solicitude toward “prince or pilgrim.”
Consequently, arrival and departure procedures are not merely logistical. They communicate the Holy See’s diplomatic and pastoral priorities:
The Vatican presents transport as a form of service. Pope John Paul II described transport workers as helping the successor of Peter proclaim the Gospel throughout the world, even when their contribution is indirect.
The governing ethical principles include:
Pope Francis linked transport and security work to defending people in danger and accepting personal risk when necessary to save lives. Vatican security personnel likewise describe order and safety as conditions that allow pilgrims to pray and participate peacefully.
The available sources do not establish:
Those details may vary by country and security assessment and are not supplied in the cited material. What can be established is that papal transport operates through central Vatican planning, host-state security cooperation, specialized aviation and logistics support, and a ceremonial framework shaped by discretion, dignity, and pastoral service.