On Corpus Christi Day, over 1.2 million people flooded the streets of Madrid to participate in the mass and solemn procession with Pope Leo XIV , which was also broadcast on big screens.
A mass devotion to the Church, with great gratification for Prevost, who so desired to set foot again as Pontiff, after having done so many times as an Augustinian prior, in a Spain that on the one hand has a reputation for being “very Catholic”.
The Pope was moved at the end of the procession: 40 minutes in Madrid's sweltering heat, he walked slowly, raising the Blessed Sacrament to show it to the people. The Pope also criticized a "comfortable and private faith, locked in selfishness," while "Jesus is with the poor, the sick, the lonely, the rejected."
Leo cited his recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas : "Economic and institutional structures are just only to the extent that they serve the integral development of the person and foster the responsible participation of all." The Pope, in an unprecedented event, spoke to the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament.
(Unioneonline)
