Pope Leo XIV’s first day in Spain served as an initial contact with Madrid, a devoted city that had been decorated and preparing for the visit for days. After landing at 10:12 AM at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, he traveled to the Royal Palace in a closed car, and despite this, he could already feel the warm welcome from the people of Madrid, who stood along the margins of the A-2 highway that leads into Madrid to greet him.
Politicians were the first to approach the Pope due to his status as head of state, but when Robert Prevost freed himself from obligations and protocol, escorted at all times by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, he opted for the poor and the young as the first recipients of a message he assures is for everyone. For believers, especially, but also for society in general, he pointed out early on the papal flight.
The Pope has not come to Spain to play the violin. It will not be a trip with a vanilla ice cream flavor. The first day confirms this. Leo XIV is not a man with his foot on the brake, chosen by the conclave to calm the President of the United States, to temper the great…
Leo XIV makes a strong impression and wastes no time. As soon as he set foot on Spanish soil, he launched a vigorous and forceful message, addressed to both society and the political class, against tension, which he referred to as “dark nights”. The Pontiff did not mince words in his first speech: “I come to encourage and inspire a deeper reconciliation and cooperation among the different forces of this nation,” he told those present. “Your own history suggests that it is not the culture of confrontation, but that of encounter, which generates stability and prosperity,” he admonished the politicians.
The political and diplomatic friendship between Spain and France could suffer a serious deterioration in the coming weeks. What happens when a country’s Parliament rejects twice the validation of a new friendship treaty with its main neighboring country? That is what could happen in the coming weeks between France and Spain. There is a possibility that the Congress of Deputies will reject for the second time the official ratification of the new treaty of friendship and cooperation with France signed on January 19, 2023, in Montjuïc, under the title Treaty of Barcelona.
The unusual image of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil entering, under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, the force’s headquarters to request documentation of confidential information has created great commotion, and enormous discomfort, internally.
On the flight bringing him to Madrid from Rome, Pope Leo XIV was asked by journalists if he preferred Real Madrid or Barcelona, a classic question. The Pontiff had no qualms about answering: “This is easy…The Pope belongs to everyone, but Prevost is a Real Madrid fan.” Robert Francis Prevost is the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.
The Pope has already arrived in Madrid. Around 10:30 AM, his plane landed at Adolfo Suárez Madrid -Barajas airport, where he was awaited by the King and Queen of Spain and other authorities, such as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the Mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida, the Government Delegate, Francisco Martín, and the highest authorities of the Church, led by Cardinal José Cobo.
Pope Leo XIV is already in Spain, after landing in Madrid past 10 AM, for his seven-day official visit which will include the Spanish capital, Barcelona (where he will visit the Sagrada Familia and bless the Jesus Tower) and the Canary Islands.
The first true mass gathering of Leo XIV in Madrid took place at night, with the vigil organized in Lima square, in the shadow of the Santiago Bernabéu. The National Police estimated the attendance at around 500,000 people who arrived from different parts of Spain. Among them, chants echoed that seemed rescued from other eras: “This is the Pope’s youth!”