On his final day in the capital, Pope Leo XIV offered a quiet Marian reflection, a direct word to bishops on abuse, and an off-script joke that brought 80,000 to their feet.
Monday was another intense day for Pope Leo XIV in the Spanish capital — and arguably the most intimate yet. After a morning that took him to the Congress of Deputies for a pointed yet encouraging address, and then time with the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the afternoon turned pastoral: a quiet prayer before Madrid’s beloved Virgin of La Almudena, a meeting with survivors of abuse, and an evening at the soccer stadium of Real Madrid -- known as the "cathedral" of football -- that no one is likely to forget.
At the Almudena: Walls and horizons
Before heading to the stadium, Pope Leo visited Madrid’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Almudena, where he placed a golden rose before the image of the Virgin Mary, invoking her intercession for the Church in Madrid.
His address was brief but luminous. The Pope described the ancient Marian devotion of the Almudena as “a sign of the Christian roots that define and sustain you, but also of the great hope that continues to inspire you to move forward.” From that foundation, he turned outward. He urged the local Church to overcome division and work as a community:
“To build something new, beautiful and lasting, we must be willing to tear down walls. In order to set out on the path again, we need spaces that allow us to catch a glimpse of the horizon.” He closed praying that Catholics in Spain would be “sustained and strengthened in your love for Jesus and for the Church, so that you can form bonds and restore the universal language of communion, fraternal love and harmony.”
Read the story of the legend here, to understand the Pope's beautiful reference to the "walls" and why it was such a perfect image for his message.
With the Bishops: Truth, justice, reparation
The encounter with the Spanish Episcopal Conference was frank. Pope Leo told Spain’s Catholic hierarchy that they must provide reparations to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and deal with the crisis transparently, calling for “an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.” He was direct: “Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation. Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing.”
The meeting with bishops was followed by a private hour-long audience with six survivors at the Vatican embassy, in which the Pope vowed to consider their suggestions for improving the Church’s response. The scale of abuse in Spain has been a focus since the El País newspaper brought it to light, though the numbers are widely diverging; the country launched a reparations system earlier this year requiring participation from both the Church and the Spanish government.
At the stadium: A "goal" for eternity
For the second time in history — the first being John Paul II in 1982 — a pope visited the Bernabéu. The stadium roared with chants of “Papa Leon!” and “Olé, olé, olé!” as more than 80,000 Catholics gathered for the diocesan event.
The Pope’s opening was off-script. He quipped: “I think that for a player, scoring a goal in this stadium is a major milestone in life.” He paused, let the stadium breathe, then delivered the turn: “But today the Church of Madrid has scored a goal for eternity.” The crowd erupted.
It was a night of testimonies. Among those who spoke was Álvaro, 33, recently baptized, who recounted feeling spiritually empty before an unexpected pull drew him back to a Bible tucked in a drawer at his mother’s house. “I felt that Bible calling me to read it,” he said. “Reading the Bible every day led me to know God, to know Jesus, and that led me to pray, and praying brought me a direct connection with him, something I had never felt anything like in my life.”
In his address, the Pope urged Madrid’s Catholics to “bear witness to the Gospel in the capital of a great European country” and warned against parish councils becoming “mere bureaucratic formalities,” calling them instead spaces of genuine discernment. He closed with a charge: “Goodness, even when shown by only a few, can overcome the fear of many. Be, for everyone, like an open Bible: may people find the Word of God in your faces and in your lives.”
The entire stadium rose for a standing ovation as the evening came to a close. After a final meeting thanking the thousands of volunteers that have made this intense few days a widely hailed total success, Pope Leo XIV leaves Madrid this morning for Barcelona. There, on Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of the death of Venerable Antoni Gaudí, he will inaugurate the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Família.
You can read translations of all of the Pope's homilies and speeches here.
