Leo XIV makes a strong statement 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.
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For weeks, it had been leaked in the Vatican that the trip to Spain, the first by a Pope in fifteen years, would have two main axes: immigration, which will reach its peak in the Canary Islands, and political polarization, an issue that particularly concerns the Pope from Chicago, also because of what is happening in his own country. On the Peninsula, according to the Holy See, he finds another worrying example.
Thus, after the brief welcome ceremony at the airport, the Pontiff’s car arrived at Plaza de Oriente, where the King and Queen were waiting for him. Afterwards, in the Hall of Columns of the Royal Palace, Prevost, in his measured tone, celebrated “multifaceted” Spain and addressed an audience made up of politicians of today and yesterday. “I invite everyone, for the love of truth, to abandon the divisive and polarizing narratives of your social reality and its history, to move from sterile simplifications to a fruitful appreciation of complexity,” he snapped at them.
It is not the culture of confrontation but that of encounter that generates stability and prosperity”
In the room, the silence grew even denser. Santiago Abascal, seated far from the front rows and impassive throughout the speech, observed the ceiling. It was difficult not to think of him when, shortly after, Prevost called for “fleeing from identitarian approaches that populate the world with ghosts and enemies” and demanded a culture of dialogue capable of confronting the complexity of Spanish and European reality, in addition to advocating for the European project.
The words resonated before half the Government, starting with President Pedro Sánchez; former presidents Felipe González, José María Aznar, and Mariano Rajoy –José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, focused on his defense, is not present these days–; the presidents of the autonomous communities and other leaders such as Alberto Núñez Feijóo or Abascal.
“Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to be growing, rather than diminishing; human dignity continues to be violated,” he warned later in one of the most explicit references to the tension in Spain and much of the West.
“It is not the culture of confrontation, but that of encounter, which generates stability and prosperity,” he highlights
Upon leaving, the most satisfied, at least by the gesture, seemed to be the President of the Government, who gladly heard the Pope’s gratitude to Spain for its “fidelity to international law and multilateralism,” a recognition that comes at a time when the Executive has tried to project precisely that image on the international scene and has found a point of communion with Rome there that it is trying to exploit these days.
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In the afternoon, Prevost led what he considered his first act in Madrid, at a Caritas center for homeless and vulnerable people that is always open, Cedia 24 hours, in the Lucero neighborhood. In the periphery, far from the pomp and carpets of the Royal Palace, in a simple setting, the Pontiff remarked that “charity does not admit delays” and warned of the “risk” that certain political and economic positions entail, leading to deception and indifference in the face of unjust situations. It was a simple act, in which the authorities were relegated to the back rows and the protagonists were the people served by Caritas, visibly moved.
Later in the evening, the Pontiff mingled with the youth in Lima Square, where 15 years later they once again chanted: “This is the Pope’s youth!”.
After the protocol, the Pope opts for the periphery and a social project as his “first act” in Madrid
Throughout the day, thousands of citizens gathered along the Pope’s route, like in major cycling races, with flags and banners. More than 200,000 people greeted him, according to initial government estimates. At the night vigil, according to the Police, there were half a million people.
On another note, on the flight that took him from Rome to the Spanish capital, he addressed some of the main issues of international current affairs. Starting with the war in Iran. “In this case, the criterion for defining it as a just war is no longer met. The problem is that the theory of just war dates back centuries. It was never imagined that human weapons and destructive capacity could go so far, as I also explain in the encyclical,” he stated.
The Pope will meet in Madrid with a group of abuse victims, a private meeting not included in the program. “I want to emphasize that not only personally, but also in the places where I have been, I have always worked to institute commissions, apply norms and rules, and I will continue to do so at the level of the entire Church. Because this remains an open wound,” he stressed.
Prevost guarantees his commitment against abuse and will meet with victims in a private encounter
The Pontiff also joked with journalists who asked him if he had studied Catalan, after the controversies of recent days surrounding the inauguration of the Jesus tower of the Sagrada Família. “For now, I only know how to say ‘Bon dia’,” he replied with a smile. And he confirmed that he will speak Catalan. The envoy from Catalunya Religió and Radio Estel, Mercè Alonso, even managed to get him to address Catalans in their own language: “ Us espero, tinc ganes de veure-us ”.
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