The Catalans who have gone to Madrid for the Pope: "Many people share this madness"

MadridPope Leo XIV will be in Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there are Catalans who did not want to miss the massive vigil and mass this weekend in Madrid. This is the case of a dozen people who have moved heaven and earth to be there and do a double. "We have come to enjoy," they assure l'ARA.

"When there are so many people at these events, I see that many people share this madness we have," he assures, referring to his faith in Josep, a 22-year-old young man from Sant Vicenç dels Horts. "At the vigil, I shed a tear," recounts Miquel, a 29-year-old shopkeeper from Manresa who converted to Catholicism at 18 in a parish with many elderly people with the rosary prayer. In this group, who traveled with Father Carlos Bosch, director of youth pastoral care in Barcelona – who was with the organization's clergy – there was a desire to experience faith in the massive events before the visit to Catalonia, in which they are very involved.

Catalan volunteers and people close to them have not missed these events, driven by faith and the will to be close to Pope Prevost. "I have come to enjoy it more, and more relaxed. Especially for those of us who work at the vigil in Barcelona. We all wanted to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and his representative on Earth," says Josep, who collaborates in communications.

Life experiences

Santi Salvador, 22 years old, explains that when he was in the United States two years ago he wished that "there would be the same revival of faith here". "In a world where Christianity seems to be falling into disuse, it is something that renews us". He is in various parishes such as Sant Cebrià and Santa Agnès as coordinator of Effetà retreats, and he is also a catechist. "There is a change, now there are young people who meet Christ and transfer their faith to their families; it is a personal decision".

Miquel also comments that "Effetà is the first step", or it can be, for people "far from the Church". Then they are accompanied to the parish, although he knows the case of a girl far from the faith who "in 2022, after a retreat, converted and is now a cloistered Carmelite".

Marta, from Cabacés (Priorat), 22 years old, recommends retreats for "the experience" and to reaffirm faith and end up "helping those next to you, each one from their own reality". Juan Pablo, who is approaching thirty, adds that it is "a first encounter" with faith, and Josep concludes: "We receive faith from our parents, but one day it doesn't serve us and we have to experience it in a living way".

Commitment

The rise of spiritual retreats or Eucharistic adorations has led to pastoral work to guide those entering the Church, keeping charity as a key principle. The Episcopal Conference addressed this in a note on emotivism, and the Pope has argued in Madrid that, in addition to praying, it is necessary to work. A message that has reached these young people: Emma has heard the call to prioritize the vulnerable: "To get closer to people's suffering, with an attitude of service," says the young woman.

Laura, Miquel's wife, lives "conversion every day" to get closer to God, like Elisabet, who from the youth ministry in Barcelona promotes activities such as feeding those who approach Cáritas, the pilgrimage to Lourdes with the sick, helping in disadvantaged parishes, or summer camps for adolescents. "There is much more reality than Effetà," she states. The Pope urges them to commit, and they, for the moment, have committed to following the Pope. Doubly so.