The Pope attacks hypocrisy: "No one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother"

MadridAfter setting homework for politicians in a forceful intervention at the Royal Palace of Madrid, this Sunday the Pope has set homework for Catholics. In what has been his first mass in the State, Leo XIV has sent very specific messages to believers: that they practice daily faith and commit themselves "personally" to the construction of the common good. But above all, he has called to set aside hypocrisy: "[Religiosity] is a school that teaches us to kneel before God and our neighbor, because no one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother," said the Pope during the homily of the massive mass held this Sunday morning in Madrid's Cibeles Square. Leo XIV also defended a religiosity that is not "a museum of the past to visit".

Hours before the celebration, many citizens were already approaching the area, wanting to secure a place from which to see, or at least hear, the Pope. In fact, a large security deployment prohibited access to the square and its surroundings from 9 a.m. – the mass began at 10:30 a.m. and lasted two hours. The mass was another massive celebration in which the Spanish capital was overwhelmed. The 380,000 assigned tickets were clearly insufficient, which led to 720,000 people in the vicinity of the square, amid frustration at not being able to see the mass from Cibeles – many with tickets, which shows the chaos – and the joy of experiencing it alongside other believers in the heart of Madrid. This has not prevented moments of indignation among attendees, where the celebration could not be heard, with attendees from Venezuela, Brazil, and entire families from Madrid – some from Opus Dei – and other parts of the State proliferating.

It is the case of Father Héctor, who has come expressly from Mexico for the Mass. They have not let him pass, even though he had a ticket. But, for him, "it has been worth coming because you feel the Catholicity, the faith" being around with the rest of the people. He perceives, with the Pope's visit, that "the cooling" of religiosity that the Virgin of Fátima had already predicted is beginning to reverse "little by little". The same is thought by a group of seventy young people who come with Father Javier Mateos from the parish of San Francisco Javier in Cartagena. Before the Mass, they have sung religious songs of all kinds: "There is a resurgence of young people", states Mateos, who links it to a society that has "stopped giving them values". "The vigil was brutal, but today it is even more so", he sentences.

In front of the Cibeles fountain, the altar has been erected, while at street level there were also reserved areas for the authorities, with the Royal House at the forefront, and two thousand religious. A small area with chairs has also been reserved for the companies that have sponsored the trip by contributing large sums of money, from the construction company ACS, to El Corte Inglés or Mapfre. On behalf of the Spanish government, the Minister of Education, Milagros Tolón (PSOE), has attended. Also attending the Mass were the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida; and from Vox, its spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán.

Commitment to those in need

Under a blazing sun, Leo XIV has appealed and demanded a faith committed to the most needy – he cited Saint John of the Cross "imprisoned in Toledo for wanting to reform the Order of Carmel by returning it to austerity" – but also an open and shared faith: "May it not close us in private devotion, but send us to water our brothers, our families, our towns, those who suffer or have lost hope," he said during the homily. The Church has long been concerned about the rise of new spiritualities outside institutional ecclesiastical circles that focus solely on emotional experience. The Spanish Episcopal Conference, for example, has pointed out the case of Christian groups like Hakuna, who, for instance, have been embraced by Ayuso's government (PP).

After the celebration, Leo XIV participated with the popemobile in the Corpus procession with a 3-kilometer route through the center of the Spanish capital, which was filled with multicolored flower carpets. Specifically, 130,000 yellow and white carnations were placed by 160 volunteers.

Call for secularism

But within the framework of the Pope's trip to the State, which includes his visit to Catalonia with a mass at the Sagrada Família, some have also denounced the involvement of public institutions, and therefore public resources, in the visit, taking into account that Spain is a non-confessional country. "We are concerned that this religious visit is treated by institutions as a State visit, with the deployment of public resources that this entails. This confusion weakens institutional neutrality and perpetuates a privileged treatment that contradicts the constitutionally recognized principle of non-confessionality," have denounced from the campaign Jo no t'espero through a statement. The campaign includes entities such as the Ferrer i Guàrdia Foundation.