The Pope arrives and perhaps a little peace

MadridAfter two weeks of upheaval, the Pope's visit offers the possibility of a parenthesis of peace and a certain truce. Leo XIV arrives with a very full agenda with which the Spanish government hopes to have the opportunity to temporarily change the scenario. It is a historic visit and attention must be focused on the pontiff's words, especially regarding his intervention in Congress, this coming Monday.

The trip has had positive preliminaries, firstly regarding the Vatican's position on the warlike scenarios in the Middle East, with the war in Iran, the genocide and the practical destruction of Gaza, and the occupation of southern Lebanon by the Israeli army. And also for the publication of Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on the risks posed by the technological evolution of the planet.

Infovaticana, which presents itself as an independent portal for news about the Catholic Church, described the significance of this text as "a comprehensive response" to the "anthropological crisis opened by artificial intelligence." To add that it is not a technical exercise on algorithms, given that "the true subject of the encyclical is man." In short, we are not talking about a conjuncture analysis, but a new contribution to the great classic social encyclicals. Much has been cited these days Leo XIII's 1891 Rerum Novarum on work and social justice, trade union movements and organizations, and private property. But also Joan XXIII's Pacem in Terris, published in 1963, against the arms race.

These are texts, in short, to which the new encyclical has given continuity, based on the same doctrine on the dignity of human beings. In fact, in Pope Roncalli's encyclical, not only was the injustice of wars condemned, but many other issues that are also highly relevant today, sixty years later, were addressed. For example, regarding immigration. In this regard, it was stated that the right of each person to "emigrate to other countries and establish their domicile there" when "just reasons" advise it should be respected.

Now that the president of the Community of Madrid speaks of the risks of “importing massive poverty” and that Vox has achieved that its pacts with the PP in the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, and Castile and Leon proclaim the “national priority” in public services, what Pope Prevost might say in the Canary Islands, for example, will have a very special significance. The reason has to do with how this community has set an example of solidarity, given the difficulty of accommodating the arrival of immigrants, and despite the controversy with its president, Fernando Clavijo, regarding another type of problem, the health one, following the arrival of the hantavirus ship.

I couldn’t help but recall these days how socialist election campaigns were conducted in the eighties and even in the early nineties, promising subsidies so that houses in some towns and cities of inland Spain could be equipped with a bathroom in each dwelling. In parallel, Alfonso Guerra, then vice-president of the Spanish government, presided over periodic meetings at the Xabia parador, where he brought thinkers and scientists who proclaimed the irruption of new technologies that would change people’s lives and the production model of many goods and services.

It was a country with rather deficient infrastructure, but which was beginning to join Europe and discover the benefits of a new era of progress and democracy. I don’t know, in any case, if we have advanced so much, when now the problem is no longer having a bathroom, but having housing, and when many kilometers of high-speed trains have been built, but we discover that the tracks are not maintained properly, with the result we saw in the Adamuz accident.

The predecessors of the current rulers – Felipe González, who presided over the government between 1982 and 1996, and Guerra himself – are today very far from their successors, especially from a Pedro Sánchez who hopes to get out of the devilish situation he is in due to the investigations for alleged cases of corruption. He doesn’t seem to suffer, but every police report is a torpedo to the waterline of the coalition government with Sumar.

The Pope will not have left and the front pages will once again be dedicated to the judicial adventures of former president Zapatero – who will testify before the National Court on the 17th and 18th – of the former organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and of a character as implausible as Leire Díez, the socialist plumber, who went around Madrid splashing everywhere, supposedly to save Pedro Sánchez from a dirty war to oust him from La Moncloa.

The hell of Aznar

I am looking forward to hearing Leo XIV's speech in the plenary session of Congress. Partly because of the degree of degradation of Spanish politics, because of the fierce struggle for power it has become in recent years. One of the latest contributions, that of former president Aznar about the hell that awaits us if the next elections allow the re-edition of a majority like the one governing in this legislature, because that would mean that "the constitutional system would end." Aznar added that the new electoral appointment will be the most important since the Transition because "no one can think of liquidating a constitutional, institutional system, a parliamentary monarchy, putting the unity of our country at risk, without affecting the coexistence between Spaniards".

The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, replied that he agreed with the relevance of the elections because "avoiding that this carcass reaches the government is a matter of life and death for our country". The wall between PP and PSOE remains very solid. Not to mention the contrast between Feijóo and Sánchez at the Círculo de Economía. The former saying he was not looking for "shortcuts" to reach the government. And the latter announcing the presentation of budgets for 2027, when we haven't been able to approve them for three years.

I return to the Magnifica Humanitas, when it tells us that "true fulfillment" is born "from harmonious growth; where freedom and responsibility intertwine with mutual care and true solidarity, and where progress is measured by the dignity of each person and the good of peoples".