Neither the fatigue, nor the hours, nor the heat have made an impact this Saturday on the more than half a million attendees, mostly young people, at the vigil that Leo XIV He has presided in Madrid, the first large mass bath that the pontiff has taken on his first trip to Spain.
“That the Pope is in Madrid, kids. He’s already with us!” cheered the entertainers early in the afternoon from the multiple screens installed along Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana.
From La Coruña to Almería, from Burgos to Huelva, the young people have occupied, starting at three in the afternoon, the almost kilometer and a half that separates the Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz from that of Lima, where the stage has been set up where the Pope was going to address them five hours later.
Although the heat has not let up, the festive atmosphere has predominated throughout the afternoon thanks also to several musical performances that have enlivened the wait.
And since Madrid you can reach heaven, as Cardinal José Cobo has reminded the faithful. The sky that the pontiff represented today, whose passage with the popemobile along Paseo de la Castellana has brought tears of emotion to a dedicated youth.
The overflight of two helicopters and the movement of the police officers monitoring the area warned the attendees, stationed near the fences that marked the route along which the popemobile was to pass, that Leo XIV was very close.
There were more than five minutes left until 8:30 p.m., the scheduled time when the Pope was to arrive at Vitrubio Street.
Madness broke out among the crowd when they began to glimpse the escort vehicles that preceded the pope while the hymn “Raise your gaze” played over the public address system.
Very smiling, the pontiff did not stop greeting the attendees with his hands and, after a few meters of travel, the popemobile stopped so that Leo XIV could kiss a little girl that her parents had brought to him.
“Here is the youth of the Pope,” chanted the faithful upon their arrival, while raising the flag of the Vatican that was sold in the improvised stalls for 15 euros each and that of Spain, with which some have surrounded themselves, for 5 euros.
A quiet and long wait
It has been a long wait, calm and without incident, monitored without any problem by the Police and with a health care services tent installed halfway along the route, to which people affected by the heat have not stopped arriving, but none of them seriously.
The volunteers have been in charge of organizing each sector allocated by parish, school or university and providing water to those who need it.
Many Spanish flags, rosaries and the visit’s motto “Raise your gaze” printed on the colorful T-shirts that most attendees wore, along with the pope’s name and the image of a lion.
“It is a gift to see the pope and the Church alive,” Javier, spiritual director of a seminary in Murcia, told Efe, who arrived in Madrid this morning, along with 400 other people, including Daniela, a 22-year-old novice, very excited because it was the first time she had seen a pontiff.
This is not the case of Berta, who confesses that he is the fourth pope she has seen in her life. That has not been an excuse for traveling from Orihuela, whose diocese has mobilized 11 buses with more than 600 people, almost all of them young.
Seven buses have arrived from Burgos. Diego, 14 years old, has traveled in one, and he confesses that he is excited and happy about an event that he found “spectacular” and that highlights the good atmosphere and organization.
His father, Juan José, tells once the event is over how he and his son enjoyed a very nice experience to see how Leo XIV is committed to peace and makes us better people.
The dances, laughter, card games and a lot of complicity have made a day that for some has lasted more than eight hours more bearable, in which the Catholic youth have been able to flex their muscles and demonstrate that the future of the Church “is guaranteed”, in the words of many of the attendees.
