Pope Leo XIV called on Saturday to put an end to “divisive and polarizing narratives” and “sterile simplifications” on the first day of his visit to Spain, focused on migration, an issue that has polarized public debate.
The pope also thanked the “active commitment to peace” and “fidelity to international law” of Spain, whose Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, has clashed with the American Donald Trump over the war in Iran and with Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza.
The pontiff himself, of American and Peruvian nationality, has been harshly criticized by Trump for his anti-war position.
Leo
The speech was widely applauded, even by Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right party Vox, who is critical of the Church’s stance on welcoming migrants.
– The “open sore” of abuse –
On the flight to Madrid, the pontiff addressed one of the main issues of his trip, sexual abuse within the Church, with whose victims he plans to meet these days.
“The abuses are a still open flame,” said Leo XIV.
The Spanish Ombudsman estimated in a report published in 2023 that, since 1940, more than 200,000 minors could have suffered attacks by Catholic religious.
At the end of March, the Sánchez Government and the Spanish Church signed an agreement to compensate victims of sexual crimes, after years of reluctance and opacity on the part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
In the afternoon, Leo XIV met with excluded people at a Cáritas center for the homeless, where he criticized that “the exercise of charity is despised or ridiculed” in today’s world.
Subsequently, the 70-year-old pontiff led a vigil in the areas surrounding Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium, where 500,000 people attended, mostly young people, who gave him a welcome like a rock star, amid songs of “León, my friend, Spain is with you” and Spanish and Vatican flags.
– “Historic opportunity” –
“I have come with my friends (…) I have been very annoying (insistent) to come,” Catarina Escobar, a 12-year-old from Madrid who goes to mass every week, told AFP.
Pablo Fernández, a 28-year-old teacher, stated that being able to see the pope “is a historic opportunity,” recalling that the last time a pope came to Spain was Benedict XVI in 2011.
“In the face of the emptiness of indifference and conformism, in the face of the violence of war and lies, be yourselves a spark of a new humanity,” the pope told the young people.
“If you are faced with the question of whether they want to see Bad Bunny or if they want to see the dad, I think many will go to see Bad Bunny. But I also think there will be some who come to see the dad. And that says something,” the dad had said before, in reference to the Puerto Rican artist, who is performing these days in Madrid.
Although religious practice has decreased considerably in this historic bastion of Catholicism in Europe, the pontiff has several massive events on his agenda.
On Sunday it is expected to bring together a million faithful at a mass in the heart of Madrid, in the Plaza de Cibeles.
– Tribute to migrants –
On Monday, Leo XIV will become the first pope to attend the Spanish Parliament, to speak before both chambers.
The next day he will travel to Barcelona, where he will celebrate mass in the Sagrada Familia, converted a few months ago into the highest church in the world.
The next day, the Pope will fly to the archipelago of the Canary Islands, located off the African coast and the main gateway for irregular migrants to Spain.
Together with Pedro Sánchez, he will meet with migrants and make a wreath in tribute to the thousands of them who died in the dangerous crossing across the Atlantic.
Contrary to other neighboring countries, the Sánchez Government recently promoted a broad plan to regularize undocumented migrants, which should normalize the situation of half a million people, mostly Latin Americans.
The measure earned him strong criticism from the conservative Popular Party and Vox.
