Leo XIV is back in the Vatican. In Madrid, they continue with the usual political and media rhythm. In Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia is full of tourists, traffic is as bad as ever, and in El Raval and Brians I, life, complicated and hard, continues on its way, as if nothing had happened. In the Canary Islands, dinghies with immigrants from Africa will continue to arrive; they will be well received by people of good faith, or they will be rejected by the official authorities and the xenophobes and racists embedded everywhere. Life goes on and a long summer awaits us, overwhelming with heat and political, social, and cultural unease, as if Leo XIV had never come.

The Spanish government eagerly awaited the Pope's visit. Not only for the symbolism of the head of the Catholic Church being in the State for a week, but because it implied a breath of fresh air amidst the judicial storm.It is enough to list the sequence of recent events to get an idea: on May 19, before the press conference of the Council of Ministers, the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a key man of Pedro Sánchez, by the National Court was made public; on Saturday the 23rd, the UDEF report on which the investigation is based was leaked; and on the 25th, the record of the search of the former Spanish president's office became known, and everything revolved around the jewels found in his safe. Then the UCO appeared at Ferraz headquarters in Madrid for the Leire case, and until this week, the annotations from the notebooks of the former PSOE militant have been coming to light, who allegedly led an operation to destabilize the judicial cases affecting Pedro Sánchez's circle.Therefore, Pope Leo XIV's appearance in Congress and his defense of immigrant reception against the national priority policies of the PP and Vox was a balm for the PSOE. And once again, regarding the positions of the right and the far-right, very critical of the regularization initiated by the Spanish government. This week, in the corridors of Congress, from the socialist ranks they insisted on the harmony with the pontiff, tiptoeing, of course, around the fact that the Pope lectured against the right to abortion and euthanasia. And it is that if one attends exclusively to the content, the pontiff gave a cold and a hot one for all groups.This was not a sufficient reason, however, for anyone (beyond Podem and the BNG who were absent) to withdraw recognition from him. The groups applauded the Pope for more than seven minutes in Congress, which means two things: that no party, despite the disagreements, wanted to appear against the pontiff, and that the political operation to seduce Leo XIV has worked perfectly. Spain is a non-confessional state, but it has thrown itself into the visit; half the population considers itself Catholic, but the entire hemicycle of Congress has embraced it. And this is only explained because the parties perceive that public opinion has a favorable position towards the current pope – in the time of Donald Trump, the traditional social doctrine of the church has become progressivism – and this is a merit of the Vatican. The total winner is the Church.The return to reality

Although this Wednesday's session in Congress was already a return to the war between the PSOE and the PP, the week that begins will bring the Moncloa a new bath of reality. It is the week horribilis that has already begun with the valuation of Zapatero's jewels (1.3 million). On Monday, Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, is summoned for a preliminary hearing in the trial; on Tuesday, the director of the Civil Guard, who met with Leire Díez, must appear in the Senate; on Wednesday and Thursday, Zapatero will testify as a suspect before the judge; and on Friday, the Attorney General in the upper house for Leire Díez's meetings. With the possibility that, at any moment, the sentence for the mask case of former minister José Luis Ábalos may be made public and there may be a first conviction around Sánchez. This week, from the PP ranks, they recited this calendar, taking for granted that Pedro Sánchez will hold out until 2027, but with the tranquility, they say, that the more time passes, the more burned he will arrive at the polls.

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It was evident that this could not last. The Pope's trip to Spain has been a great success, due to the clarity of the messages —both spiritual and political—, the good organization, and the attention with which it has been followed everywhere. But this climate of intense call for harmony and work for the common good, from unity, will be linked internally with the memory of a period when the country lived trapped in a reality of continuous upheaval. Leo XIV, it is undeniable, has set the bar very high, as high as the cross that crowns the central tower of the Sagrada Familia. The key word of this trip has been dignity, the conception of the person as the holder of inalienable and non-renounceable rights, deserving of the utmost respect. I would like to believe that, for this reason, the applause in Congress lasted almost seven minutes, so that in the hemicycle there is a minimum common denominator regarding the relationship that the chamber should have with citizens.

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Leo XIV has come to Spain to deliver a speech of inclusion and respect, “the resistance to the imposition of a single meaning,” as Jan Patocka said, although it is hard to believe coming from the highest authority of an institution founded on belief and dogma, that is, the unprovable, and all that follows from it in both theory and practice. But Leo XIV is a pope who gets involved in what is happening in the world, beyond religious debate. He has demonstrated this since his arrival by building his image –in his transition from the American to the global stage– with a clear opposition to Trump and his delusional frivolity.

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The passage of the Bishop of Rome through our land has revealed mismatches that have long accompanied the Church. Editor Ignasi Moreta expresses it with special clarity: "The Pope's visit makes visible what I most reject about Catholicism: the cult of personality, the closeness of the powerful and flatterers, liturgy as an affirmation of power, the protagonism of ultramontanists and the priestly caste, religion stiffened by the institution..." That the authenticity of Jesus' message ends up buried under layers of power, hierarchy, and ritualism is a profound contradiction for the institution that the Pope represents.It must be recognized that Leo XIV has been one of the few international voices that, in the face of Trump's and the far-right's attempt to turn fear of the other into a political project, have unreservedly championed the dignity of migrants. His defense of those who live in the precariousness of rights and borders has undeniable moral force. But this call for inclusion coexists with a Church that maintains internal borders. Women continue to be excluded from spaces and roles that men access simply by virtue of being men. And many people, due to their identity, sexual orientation, or family model, are forced to enter through the back door. The Church that claims dignity for the excluded of the world still has difficulties in fully recognizing it within its own walls.The Pope has been too flattered by political power. In his appearance before the Congress of Deputies, he called for respect among adversaries and denounced a polarization that degrades democratic coexistence. However, in the same setting, he reiterated his rejection of abortion and euthanasia, debates that have profoundly divided Western societies and in which the Church has often played a role of ideological confrontation. In a democratic and plural society, everyone's beliefs deserve respect, but they cannot be imposed on anyone. The seven minutes of applause from the parliamentarians revealed the extent to which politics still feels comfortable in the face of religious power. The next day, however, Congress returned to its usual squabble and on Thursday it processed the reform to prevent judicial blockages on euthanasia.Between El Raval and Brians and the Sagrada Família there was also contrast. The Pope wanted to approach the poor, the homeless, the immigrants, and those who live on the margins. It was probably the most coherent gesture with the Gospel. But that closeness with the vulnerable melted away inside the temple into a solemn, hierarchical, and institutional liturgy. At the forefront was the monarchy and the rest of the authorities, not the excluded. The Church that preaches humility and simplicity continues to present itself surrounded by an scenography of power that is difficult to justify.Leo XIV is back in the Vatican. After the crowd bath, rest comes to him. And with it, the opportunity to think that the credibility of an institution is not measured only by the truths it proclaims, but also by the contradictions it dares to correct.

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The papal visit has left a lot of headlines and striking images, and at a superficial glance it can be said that it has come as a balm for Pedro Sánchez. But the real headline left by this visit is that, once again, it has become clear that the supposed non-confessionality of the State is more apparent than real, and that the weight and influence of the Catholic Church are of such magnitude that even civil powers bow before it.

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The Pope's visit has made us reflect. What is religion today? At what point is the discrepancy between believers and non-believers? Historically, this discrepancy has been reduced to whether man is a creation of God or God a creation of man. For believers, God is an eternal reality who creates man in his image. For non-believers, God is a concept invented by man in search of refuge and protection. This discussion has existed for as long as man has been man and expresses a desire and need for transcendence.Among the philosophical attempts to demonstrate the existence of God, that of the medieval scholastics stands out. One of the first scholastic approaches in this regard was made in the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas, who establishes five ways of demonstration in the Summa Theologica, his major work. According to the way of motion, everything that moves is moved by another, it is necessary that there be a first mover, and this must be God. According to the way of causality, there must also be a first efficient cause: it must be God. According to the way of contingency, since beings in the world can exist or cease to exist (they are contingent), there must be, in their origin, a being that is not contingent, but necessary: God. According to the way of degrees of perfection, the existence of a gradation of qualities means that there must be a being that is maximum in goodness and other virtues, and this must be God. According to the way of finality, in the world all things tend towards an end, but they could not do so without being directed like an archer's arrow: there must be an intelligent being who has designed them this way, and this must be God.But what about today? Today, both what is enormously large (the universe, space and time, mass and energy) and what is extraordinarily small (the quantum world, or light, which is made of particles and waves at the same time) are explainable without a first cause. The paths of Thomas Aquinas are no longer universal. And Newtonian physics is no longer sufficient for us to understand the world. Science has changed our perspective.

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The singer and composer from Seville, Beret, who livened up the wait on Tuesday for Beret was one of the artists who performed on Tuesday during the massive vigil held at the Olympic Stadium to celebrate the arrival of Leo XIV in Barcelona, which also included performances by Conchita, Siloé, Álvaro Soler, Alfred García, and Sergio Dalma. Beret performed two of his best-known songs, Lo siento

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If the papal trip to Spain had an underlying message, it is the one that took place this Thursday at the Arguineguín dock, in Gran Canaria. There, next to two migrant survivors of the crossings from Africa, Leo XIV threw a bouquet of flowers into the sea in memory of the thousands of people who die every year in the Atlantic trying to reach the archipelago. According to data from the NGO Caminando Fronteras, 635 people have already died since the beginning of the year. In this scenario, the pontiff's words were very forceful on the very day the so-called Migration Pact in the European Union comes into force: "Human dignity has no passport and does not lose value when crossing a border – he recalled–. What remains of our humanity?", he asked.

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Thirty-four years later, Barcelona is once again dazzling the world while Madrid sees that three decades of turbo-capitalism and concentration of resources and power have not served it to shorten distances with the Catalan capital when it comes to achieving a global impact like that of 1992. Thirty-four years later, Madrid has not only not had the Olympic Games, but has had to see how the blessing ceremony of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família by Leo XIV has taken all the praise and headlines in the world press and left the visit of the Pope himself to the Spanish capital a few days earlier in an absolute second place. And this without going into comparing the quality of what has been seen in Catalonia in recent days (cathedral, Lluís Companys stadium, Brians, Montserrat and Sant Agustí) with the events in Madrid, particularly the performances with an evangelistic air at the Santiago Bernabéu.

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The show had not yet ended and everyone already had it clear that the blessing of the Sagrada Família's Jesus tower would be one of the images of the year. This Thursday, the front pages of the world's press certified it. As in the '92 Olympic Games, Barcelona once again showed itself splendid in a global ceremony. The day after the event, it was easy to overhear conversations everywhere about the impressive effect of the drones recreating the figure of Antoni Gaudí or the beauty of the light show. Comments that, often, oscillated between pride in the image offered and reservations about whether this could lead to an increase in tourism in the Catalan capital.

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Some 600 members of various choirs who were due to participate this Wednesday in the mass and the act of blessing the cross of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada FamiliaWhile they were singing the Virolai, however, they observed "a lot of secret police" climbing up to where they were. "I thought it was just the general protocol for the Pope and that was it," admits one of the affected singers. Before they had even finished singing the hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat, the officers began to make them come down from the choir lofts and led them outside.

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Despite the undisputed prominence of Pope Leo XIV, the figure of the day is Antoni Gaudí. His exuberant imagination, the firmness of his judgment, his extraordinary aesthetic sense, his mastery of calculation and the use of materials, have given him a place at the forefront of the history of contemporary architecture. Joan Maragall said that Gaudí was the poet of stone.

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At the height of Gran Via, I cross the teachers' demonstration, which recharge me with a type of faith in the collective that I'm not sure rhymes with the faith that's the protagonist of the day or if it chatters. I head towards the cathedral, the temperature is as it should be for the time of year, and Barcelona's Gothic Quarter is as full as ever with tourists and absurd shops.

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In Madrid, a political message; in Catalonia, a social accent. After three days in the Spanish capital where messages against polarization and understanding had marked his discourse, Pope Leo XIV took advantage of his first major public event in Barcelona this Tuesday to disseminate messages with strong social content. Before the 40,000 people filling the Olympic Stadium, the pontiff called for confronting the scourge of violence against women and placing mental health at the center of the health system, without forgetting, however, the idea of a diverse and welcoming country.

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On Tuesday the Pope lands in our country. After having talked about him so much, now it's his turn to speak. And both those who are eagerly awaiting him and those who are bothered by this deployment of public resources to receive a religious leader in a non-confessional country, it would be good for them to listen carefully, to see what he says and how he says it. That we all keep quiet for a moment, to listen first and then applaud or criticize what he has to say to the world from Catalonia, and what he has to say to us, the Catalans. What idea does he have, or what idea have they built for him between some and others (more the former than the latter, of course) of this post-Process Catalonia, more mixed than ever.

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Rarely has Catalonia been so fortified as for the visit of Pope Leo XIV. Police sources speak of an unprecedented and extraordinary operation, which will mobilize more police officers than ever before (up to 7,000) and which bears the name Albus. The Mossos have chosen it because it means white in Latin and white is the color of the pontiff's usual attire, becoming his most recognizable visual symbol.

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God is Catalan. We have scientific and metaphysical proof. Even though we are far apart, there has always been a very good relationship. From km 0. The gas station philosopher Francesc Pujols creates God's first service station on earth: Catalan religion. "Because if having your own system is equivalent to having your own car, having your own religion is like having your own home." It is a natural, real religion, which is why faith here is everything that surrounds us. And Catalans are "compatriots of truth." The mission is to offer truth to the world: "Catalonia will link the two paths, material and spiritual, of humanity, in a cross, not of death, but of life, not of war, but of peace and moral progress." But war arrives. Catalan religion, Catalonia, found itself "between the flames of fire and the rivers of blood of the Civil War unleashed by the supporters of Spanish Spain against the supporters of Catalan Spain." Fire in the shack.

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After assigning homework to politicians in a forceful intervention at the Royal Palace of Madrid, this Sunday the Pope continued in the same vein and addressed businessmen. At this afternoon's event at the Movistar Arena, which featured a combination of artists, athletes, and union and business representatives, Leo XIV once again raised his voice to ask businessmen to treat workers "with dignity".

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Olha Kosova is a journalist who is also a user of the Càritas Madrid reception center visited by Leo XIV.The Pope's image suddenly appears on the television screen. Applause and shouts of joy fill the room. The dining room, the usual setting for our daily conversations and gatherings, becomes for a few minutes one of the spaces included in the Pope's visit to Madrid. When the pontiff enters the room and begins to greet those present, many approach to try to see him up close. Some cannot hold back tears.

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