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dpatopbilder - Pope Leo XIV leads a mass for the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in the Plaza de Cibeles. Photo: Manu Fernandez/AP/dpa
Keystone
Pope Leo XIV celebrated an open-air mass in the Spanish capital, which according to official figures was attended by around 1.2 million people. It was the largest crowd to attend a mass by Leo since the US-American was elected Pope in May last year. The police eventually had to close the entrances due to the crowds, as reported by Spanish media.
In his sermon, Leo emphasized the close connection between faith and everyday life: "Jesus does not remain locked up in the temple, but comes to meet us. Jesus walks through the streets, crosses the squares, visits our neighborhoods and lives in the places of our everyday lives," he said in the Plaza de Cibeles in the center of the capital.
Almost 400,000 people from Germany and abroad had already registered in advance to take part. However, as registration was not compulsory, many people came to the fair spontaneously. Among those in attendance were Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Crown Princess Leonor and other personalities from politics and society.
The head of around 1.4 billion Catholics said that faith must not remain private, but must also be visible in everyday life and in society. At the same time, the Pontiff emphasized the social dimension: Christ identifies "with the poor, the downcast, the lonely and the abandoned".
The Eucharistic celebration took place on a specially erected altar with an area of around 600 square meters. Above the center of the altar hung a monumental figure of Christ, a replica of the image of Christ of the Sisters of Bethlehem. According to the organizers, there were around 5,000 people in the immediate area around the altar together with other clergy and guests of honour. The mass was also broadcast to the surrounding streets of the city via 42 large screens.
After the mass, a procession along Madrid's Recoletos-Alcalá axis was on the program. According to the organizers, the Pope was to drive through almost all the visitor areas on Sunday in the Popemobile.
In the afternoon, on the second day of his visit to Spain, Leo XIV wanted to take part in an event in Madrid's Movistar Arena with representatives from the worlds of culture, art, business and sport and give a speech there. The day was to end with a dinner at the residence of the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano.
07.06.2026, 11:52
