The Pontiff spoke of healthy secularity in his speech at the Concluding Session of the "Popular religiosity in the Mediterranean" Congress, the initial stage of his visit. Secularity, among the constitutional principles of France, "guarantees politics to operate without exploiting religion, and religion to live freely without being weighed down by the politics dictated by interest, and sometimes not at all in accordance, or even contrary, to religious beliefs". Pope Francis then stressed the importance of a mutual openness between religious and secular culture and between believers and those who have distanced themselves from religious practice but who "are not strangers to the search for truth".

Pope Francis spoke about peace at the Angelus in the Ajaccio Cathedral in the presence of bishops, priests, men and women religious. The Holy Father recalled the many conflicts that bloody the world, from the Middle East to Europe and Asia, and asked them to pray for peace. He also mentioned the victims of the cyclone that hit the French archipelago of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.

Finally, during the Mass in Place d 'Austerlitz, before a sea of faithful, the Holy Father spoke so much about popular piety on his 47th Apostolic Journey. a touching moment just before the beginning of the Mass was when the statue of the Virgin passed through the crowd, carried on the shoulders of the members of the confraternities while all the people sang a beautiful Marian hymn. Pope Francis wanted to leave an important and powerful message, remembering how even in the midst of the devastation of wars, the hope of the Lord who comes never disappoints.

There were unscheduled events during the visit, such as the greeting to Jean-Marie, the oldest member of Ajaccio, with his 108th birthday, and the prayer in front of the statue of the Virgin of Mercy, the patron saint of Corsica that the island's Catholics – about 90% - venerate as the "Madunuccia".

The last act of the visit to Corsica was a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in an airport lounge named after Napoleon. The president showed affection for the Pope and presented him with a particular gift: a large book dedicated to the Notre-Dame cathedral, restored after the dramatic fire of 2019 and reopened to the public a week ago, on 7 December. Macron then thanked Pope Francis "on behalf of Corsica and France" and wished him the best for the beginning of the Jubilee.

By plane, on his return trip to Rome, Pope Francis expressed his joy regarding this visit to Ajaccio, a land where "they have so many children". The short return journey also allowed the Holy Father to experience a small moment of celebration with the gift of a cake from the members of AIGAV, the association of Vaticanists accredited by the media from each continent, who wanted to celebrate the Pope's eighty-eighth birthday on 17 December.

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