Pope Leo draws massive crowds for Madrid Mass

More than a million people filled central Madrid on Sunday as Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air Mass and led a flower-carpeted procession on the second day of his weeklong visit to Spain.

The Vatican and local organizers said about 1.2 million people gathered in and around Plaza de Cibeles, braving the heat and packing the streets several rows deep to see the pope arrive in his white popemobile. Worshippers waved Spanish and Vatican flags, tossed flower petals and shouted “Long live the pope.” King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended the morning service.

The Mass is expected to be the largest event of Leo’s June 6-12 apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, his first visit to a European Union country outside Italy and the first papal trip to Spain in about 15 years.

During his sermon, Leo urged Catholics to express their faith by serving others, saying God “identifies with the poor, the downtrodden, those who are alone and forsaken.” He told the crowd that religion should not be treated as “a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today.”

Sunday’s Mass coincided with the Catholic feast of Corpus Domini, which is often marked by processions led by a priest carrying the Eucharist. In Spain, those processions frequently include elaborate floral carpets. According to Spanish organizers, 16 carpets decorated a half-kilometer procession route near Plaza de Cibeles. A Spanish florists association from Galicia prepared them using more than 30,000 flowers, mostly in the yellow and white colors of the Vatican flag.

Leo said the floral carpets reflected Spain’s spiritual traditions through “altars erected in the streets.”

“This is not an exhibition, a remnant of folklore or a simple display of beauty,” he said. “It is a profession of faith in the presence of the risen Lord, who is alive and continues to walk among us.”

At the end of the Mass, Leo carried a gilded monstrance holding a Eucharistic host over the flower carpets as children dropped more petals before him and people behind barricades tossed petals along the route. Authorities mounted a major security operation for the Mass and procession, and the streets were decorated with banners bearing the pope’s face and thousands of white and yellow carnations.

Leo began his visit Saturday by meeting migrants and homeless people and attending a vigil that drew large crowds of young people. Al Jazeera reported the vigil drew about 600,000 people, while the BBC reported about 500,000. At the gathering near Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium, he told young people, “In the face of the emptiness of indifference and compliance, before the violence of war and lies, you must be the sparks of a new humanity.”

Some attendees said they were drawn by Leo’s message of inclusion and service. “I have come to meet Jesus Christ through the words of the Pope,” 30-year-old Marta Perez told AFP, according to the BBC. “He’s come to do good, with all his love.” Ana Milagros, 64, said the pope was trying to “help all of us,” adding, “There is a lot of polarisation and differences in politics, in social matters, in the economy.”

In Madrid, Leo received the key to the city from the mayor and wrote in the guestbook: “May Madrid continue to be a welcoming and inclusive city, where social life is inspired by true human values.” He has said he hopes the trip will offer an example of respect for “every human being” and has urged leaders to stop dividing electorates.

The pope is also scheduled to visit Barcelona and the Canary Islands, where he will meet migrants and refugees who risked their lives crossing from West Africa. The BBC reported that he is due to visit the islands with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez later in the week to honor thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe. His itinerary also includes a private meeting with members of his Augustinian religious order, an address before the Spanish parliament and a meeting with victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.