- The Pope's return: a significant break
- The long absence and its theological reasons
- The reception at the Royal Palace: when Caesar receives Peter
- What the first speech says about a pontificate
- Spain awakens: a youth in search of meaning
- The figures of a turnaround
- The Plaza de Lima vigil: a pastoral test
- The Catholic Generation Z: who are they really?
- Poor people, migrants, reconciliation: the evangelical trilogy of travel
- Cedia 24 horas: when the Pope starts with the last
- The migration issue: the Canary Islands as a prophetic horizon
- Spain, the Holy See, and unresolved tensions
- ✝ Biblical references
On the morning of June 6, 2026, at 10:30 a.m., the wheels of the white plane bearing the arms of the Holy See touched down on the tarmac of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport. Fifteen years. Fifteen years Spain had been waiting for this. Fifteen years the bells of cathedrals, the parishes of suburbs, the monasteries of Castile, and the chapels of the Canary Islands had been watching for the white silhouette of a successor of Peter to land on their soil. Since World Youth Day, celebrated in Madrid in August 2011 by Benedict XVI, no Roman pontiff had set foot on Spanish soil. And yet, the theological and spiritual history between Rome and Spain is of unparalleled richness in the Christian West: it was in Spain that Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross reformed the Carmelites; it was from its ports that the first missionaries departed for the New World; It was from its universities that Catholic humanism—Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suárez—laid the foundations of international law. When a pope returns to Spain after a fifteen-year silence, it is not an ordinary diplomatic event. It is an ecclesiological act.
Leo XIV—Robert Francis Prevost, elected to the See of Peter in May 2025—did not come by chance, nor solely at the formal invitation of King Felipe VI. He came because Spain, described for two decades as an advanced laboratory of European secularization, is currently undergoing a silent spiritual upheaval, almost imperceptible to the media, but profoundly real in parishes, youth groups, and the movements of the new evangelization. This seven-day trip—Madrid, Barcelona, the Canary Islands—is a pastoral response to this reality. And the first day in Madrid, between royal protocol at the Palace and a youth vigil in the Plaza de Lima, already reveals the spiritual grammar of this pontificate.
The Pope's return: a significant break
The long absence and its theological reasons
The fact that fifteen years have passed without a papal visit to Spain warrants closer examination. The pontificate of Francis (2013–2025) deliberately avoided the country. The reasons given—a busy schedule, tensions with the government, the abuse scandal—are insufficient to explain what appears to be more of a symbolic choice. In a Spain grappling with the legalization of euthanasia, the expansion of abortion rights, and societal reforms implemented by Pedro Sánchez's government that represent a direct break with Church teaching, a papal trip would have been seen as a signal—for or against—that Francis perhaps did not wish to convey. Leo XIV, however, chose to come. In doing so, he broke the silence without, however, resolving the complexities: his first act on Spanish soil was not a speech at the Royal Palace, but a visit to the Cedia 24 Horas center, a Caritas shelter for migrants and the homeless in Madrid. The poor before protocol: that's a papal signature that transcends political divides.
It is important to remember here that the Holy See maintains the oldest continuous diplomatic relations in its history with Spain, dating back to the 15th century. This long history is not merely anecdotal. It speaks to the depth of the bond between Roman Catholicism and Spanish identity—a bond that neither the militant secularism of successive governments nor the mass secularization of the 1980s and 2000s have managed to completely dissolve. The Gospel of Luke records this saying of Jesus, which the Church has meditated upon since its origins: «All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.» (Jn 6:37). In the theological grammar of papal travel, returning to where one was absent is precisely this: not to put anyone out, to remind that the door remains open.
The reception at the Royal Palace: when Caesar receives Peter
At 11:30 a.m., Leo XIV was received at the Royal Palace of Madrid by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. This ceremony, prepared during a royal visit to the Vatican on March 20, 2026, held particular symbolic significance. The Spanish monarchy is, in its constitutional definition, a secular and non-denominational monarchy—and yet, no other Western European country preserves so many living traces of the christianitas medieval in its institutions, its landscape and its popular culture. When Peter's successor enters the courtyard of the Royal Palace of Madrid, where the uniformed guards present arms, he enters a space that was long that of the very Catholic kings — Charles V, Philip II — whose armies carried the Catholic faith to the antipodes.
Cardinal José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid, participated in this welcoming ceremony. A direct heir to the tradition established by Cardinal Rouco Varela and further developed by Carlos Osoro, José Cobo represents a Madrid Church that has learned, sometimes painfully, to engage with modernity without being subsumed by it. His presence alongside the Pope and the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez embodied, in itself, the fruitful tension of this journey: Church and State, the scepter and the crosier, no longer bound by the intertwining of an outdated concordat system, but in the mutual recognition of two institutions with shared histories and divergent missions.
What the first speech says about a pontificate
Leo XIV's first major speech in Spain—delivered before political authorities, civil society, and the diplomatic corps at the Royal Palace—had programmatic value for the entire trip. Without reproducing its exact wording, this speech reflects a papal line of thought that rejects false dilemmas: neither the nostalgic restoration of a Catholic Spain steeped in Christendom, nor capitulation to a secularization presented as inevitable. The German theologian Karl Rahner—whose thought subtly permeates contemporary ecclesiastical reflection—had prophesied that 21st-century Christianity would be mystical or it would cease to exist. Leo XIV's Madrid program, alternating between royal protocol and a youth vigil, a visit to migrants and an open-air Corpus Christi celebration, seems to demonstrate that mysticism and civic engagement are not two separate paths, but one and the same evangelical approach.
Spain awakens: a youth in search of meaning
The figures of a turnaround
For decades, Spain served as a symbol—almost a cautionary tale—in European debates on dechristianization. The country, which had experienced the Francoist dictatorship under the shadow of the cross, had, as democracy took hold, associated modernity with a growing distance from the Church. Statistics on religious practice from the 1990s to 2010 seemed to tell a linear story: a decline in religious marriages, a collapse in vocations, and disaffection among those under 40. This story isn't entirely wrong. But it's incomplete.
Today, a survey published in 2026 by a foundation close to the Church reveals that 45% of young Spaniards aged 15 to 29 identify as Catholic, compared to only 31.6% in 2020. This jump of nearly fourteen percentage points in six years is spectacular—and it is manifesting itself concretely: the dioceses of Catalonia have recorded more than 500 adult baptisms this year; Eucharistic adoration sessions in Madrid parishes attract hundreds of young people every week; and New Evangelization movements have seen attendance increase from 30% to 40% since 2023. Fran Ramírez Mora, head of youth ministry for the Spanish Episcopal Conference, speaks of a veritable «"Awakening of faith"» among a generation that is searching for its roots. And Juan José Omella, Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona and President of the Episcopal Conference, sees in the visit of Leo XIV a historic opportunity to consolidate this still fragile movement.
This shift is not unique to Spain; it is part of a broader phenomenon, visible in France, Poland, Italy, and even Germany, where millennials and Generation Z seem to be seeking, in a Church they have long shunned, something that neither social media, nor consumerism, nor psychotherapy can provide. This something has a name in the Christian tradition: theological hope—not fleeting optimism, but the deep-rooted certainty that life has a meaning that transcends its immediate contingencies.
The Plaza de Lima vigil: a pastoral test
It is precisely this quest that the prayer vigil organized this evening at 8:30 p.m. in the Plaza de Lima addresses. This large Madrid esplanade, transformed for the occasion into a place of gathering and prayer, welcomes thousands of young Spaniards from all regions. The format—prayer, music, silence, papal address—resembles that of World Youth Day, but more intimate, more rooted in local reality. It is not insignificant that Leo XIV chose to go there after visiting the Cedia 24 Horas center: the message is clear. One cannot speak of hope to young people without first looking into the eyes of those who have lost everything. The coherence between charitable acts and evangelizing words has been, since the beginning of this pontificate, the hallmark of Leo XIV.
Cardinal Walter Kasper—a leading theologian on the question of mercy in the contemporary Church—often reminded us that the Church's credibility with young people rests primarily on witness, not argument. "It is not our encyclicals that convert," he said in a memorable interview, "it is our saints." Leo XIV, by placing his first day in Madrid under this dual theme—the poor and young people—demonstrates that he has taken this lesson to heart. He comes not as a professor who teaches, but as a pastor who accompanies.
The Catholic Generation Z: who are they really?
It would be too simplistic to reduce this spiritual awakening among young Spaniards to a passing fad or an identity-based reaction against secularization. Their profiles are diverse: they include children from devout families who had drifted away and are now returning, but also young people from non-believing families who have had a personal conversion experience, often through a camp, a retreat, or an encounter with a movement such as the Neocatechumenal Way, the Emmanuel Community, or Opus Dei. What unites them is less a rigid doctrinal stance than a thirst for depth, meaning, beauty, and fraternity.
It is here that this verse from the book of Ecclesiastes resonates with particular force, so rarely quoted but so profoundly true to describe this generation: «Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, »I no longer find pleasure in them.’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). These young people do not come to God out of fear of the future. They come to Him because they have understood, often intuitively, that youth itself is a time of grace that it would be a shame to waste on superficiality. Leo XIV, who dedicated his address to the Scouts on June 1, 2026, to "Christian humanism rooted in people's lives," speaks their language.
Poor people, migrants, reconciliation: the evangelical trilogy of travel
Cedia 24 horas: when the Pope starts with the last
There is an evangelical logic in this choice—visiting a Caritas center for migrants and the homeless before reaching out to civil society—that Saint John Chrysostom would have immediately recognized. The great fourth-century preacher from Antioch constantly reminded his followers that the Eucharist celebrated in church and charity practiced in the streets were one and the same act of worship. Leo XIV, by visiting Cedia 24 horas at 6:00 p.m. before the youth vigil at 8:30 p.m., performs precisely this broader liturgical gesture: he first dedicates time to the excluded, he "offers" their faces to God, and then he can speak of hope to young people.
This is not populism. It is incarnate theology. Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga—one of the most respected advisors in the Latin American Church—always insisted on this point: the «optional preference for the poor» is not a political ideology, it is a Christological imperative. If the Word became flesh in the poverty of Bethlehem, if the Son of God linked the Last Judgment to the treatment of the least among us (Mt 25:40), then any ecclesiology that does not begin with the poor is already contradicting itself. Leo XIV, who spent a significant part of his episcopal ministry in Peru, among the impoverished Andean people, hardly needs this explained to him.
The migration issue: the Canary Islands as a prophetic horizon
This initial gesture from Madrid towards migrants takes on its full significance when considered in conjunction with the final leg of the journey: the Canary Islands, where Leo XIV will travel on June 11 and 12. The archipelago has become one of the major entry points for Atlantic migration to Europe. In 2025, according to data from the International Organization for Migration, 1,172 migrants died or went missing on the Atlantic route from the African coast to the Canary Islands. This figure—one death every seven hours—constitutes a moral and humanitarian scandal that Leo XIV intends not to ignore.
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There is a prophetic coherence in this trajectory—beginning with a Caritas home in Madrid and ending on the beaches of Gran Canaria—reminiscent of John Paul II's major papal journeys to Africa. The Pope is not simply visiting a country: he is charting a course that reveals something about the Church's priorities. This course leads from palaces to the peripheries, from capitals to borders, from the center to the margins—precisely where Jesus spent the bulk of his Galilean ministry. The passage from the Gospel of Mark is strikingly apt here: «He went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.» (Mt 9:35-36). That kind of pity—the Greek word splanchnidzomai, which denotes a visceral compassion, literally "in the gut" — is the emotional and theological signature of the nascent pontificate of Leo XIV.
Spain, the Holy See, and unresolved tensions
It would be inaccurate to present this trip solely in terms of enthusiasm and renewal. Real tensions exist, and Leo XIV is well aware of them. The issue of sexual abuse committed by members of the Spanish clergy—a 2023 report cited more than 200,000 potential victims since 1940—hangs over this trip like a moral burden. The Pope has confirmed that he will meet with several victims during his stay: this painful yet necessary gesture is one of the conditions for the credibility of any discourse on hope and mercy.
There is also the issue of the memory of the Valle de Cuelgamuros, formerly the Valle de los Caídos, whose redevelopment, desired by the government, continues to divide the Spanish Catholic world. And there are the profound disagreements between the Holy See and the socialist government on the issues of euthanasia, abortion, and education. Leo XIV does not intend to erase these disagreements with a diplomatic smile. But neither does he come as an accuser or a tribune. He comes as a pastor, aware that Peter's mission is not to govern Spain, but to strengthen his brothers in the faith—according to the very words of the Risen Christ: «"When you have returned to me, strengthen your brothers."» (Lk 22:32).
Perhaps this is the most accurate interpretation of this first day in Madrid: a pope who arrives not to resolve the political conflicts of contemporary Spain, but to remind its people—believers, non-believers, lukewarm, and fervent—that they are loved with a love that precedes all disagreements and survives all ruptures. «España te espera, León» (Spain is waiting for you, León), the Spanish press headlined this morning. But perhaps, in the grammar of the Gospel, the opposite is even truer: the Successor of Peter came because he, too, was waiting for Spain—with the patience and tenderness of a shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep to search for the hundredth lost in the hills of modernity.
✝ Biblical references
4 passages · 4 books
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
A philosophical reflection on the meaning of life, work and time in the face of death.
→ Explore the Codex Ecclesiastes
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. (John 3:16)
The Gospel of the Word: a profound theology of the Incarnation and the signs of Jesus.
→ Explore the Codex John- My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink (John 6:51-58)
- My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink (John 6:52-59)
- I am the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:44-51)
- This is the will of my Father: that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life (Jn 6:35-40)
- It is not Moses, but my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven (John 6:30-35)
- To whom shall I go? — When Jesus shifts the center of gravity of our life
- «My flesh is truly food»: plunging into the abyss of John 6:51–58
- «Be what you see»: Saint Augustine and the Eucharistic mystery of the Church
- The bread of life: what does man truly hunger for?
- The beggar's shamelessness: when audacity becomes the highest form of prayer
- The Body of the Lord in a world on fire — when the procession becomes a prayer of war
- Bread on the Grave — Leo XIV, Corpus Domini and World Hunger
- One million faithful, one chalice, one procession: Madrid once again becomes the Eucharistic heart of the world
- The Eucharistic Christ enters the city: Leo XIV, Madrid and the compass of Corpus Christi
The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)
The Gospel of Mercy: Jesus close to the poor, women and sinners.
→ Explore the Codex Luc- Faith, the Kingdom that beats within you: meditating on Saint Maximus the Confessor
- «I pray for them» — The intercession of Christ, the beating heart of our salvation
- «I am with you always» — The presence of Jesus as an answer to human anguish
- To be different in order to be free: the Christian, a happy stranger in a world that rejects him
- Preparing for Passover: The art of making room for God
Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
The Gospel of the King: Jesus, the new Moses, fulfills the Scriptures for Israel and the nations.
→ Explore the Matthew Codex- Jesus called his twelve disciples and sent them on a mission (Mt 9:36 – 10:8)
- The days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast (Mt 9:14-15)
- Seeing the crowds, Jesus was filled with compassion (Mt 9:35 – 10:1, 5a, 6-8)
- Believing in Jesus, two blind men are healed. (Mt 9:27-31)
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