In an in-depth speech, the Holy Father spoke with his brother bishops about various aspects of communion and leadership.
In the land with the world's most famous and well-traveled pilgrimage path, the Camino of Santiago, Pope Leo spoke to the bishops using the imagery of a pilgrim.
In an in-depth speech, the Holy Father spoke with his brother bishops about various aspects of communion and leadership, calling both on the deeply rooted Catholic tradition of Spain and urging them to look toward renewal.
The idea of journey gave him an overall structure:
One temptation that can arise when traveling is that of fixating on what we leave behind — places, things, ways of life — without opening ourselves, in docility to the Spirit, to the newness of what we encounter. Along with this temptation, there is also that of our luggage, which, for similar reasons, we fill with useless things that end up being a burden.
Pope Leo said that "courage and freedom" are needed, "so that we may leave behind structures that do not help us, do not respond to our needs, or even lead us away from our goal, while having the strength to treasure what facilitates it."
In one concrete moment, the Pope urged good formation of seminarians, saying, "Seminarians have a right to the best possible formation, and the Church, for her part, has a right to well-formed priests."
He gave three criteria for good formation
-- an adequate experience of community life;
-- formators fully dedicated to study and teaching, with experience in spiritual accompaniment;
-- centers of higher theological learning, equipped with the necessary means to fulfill their mission.
Here, the Pope said to the bishops, "it is essential not only to join forces but also to learn to work together in managing these challenges."
In fact, a lay movement popular in Spain, the Neocatechumenal Way, provides approximately 20% of the country’s seminarians, with 212 in formation as of 2026.
On Sunday night, Pope Leo met with members of his own spiritual family, the Augustinians. Speaking to some 220 Augustinian fathers from various communities and several members of the Augustinian family in Madrid, he spoke of how "communion and unity of heart among Augustinians can serve as a message to the world at this moment in history."
A full transcript of that event has not been released.
