The monumental scene was familiar to more than one because exactly 15 years ago, in August 2011, Benedict XVI chose the same place to celebrate a Eucharist. It was the starting point of WYD 2011 and the highlight of Leo XIV‘s visit to Madrid three lustrums later, before continuing his historic journey to Spain with stops in Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
Then, in 2011, the late afternoon was chosen for the celebration of the massive event from Cibeles; now, the organization decided to celebrate the Eucharist early in the morning, not even twelve hours after the multitudinous vigil in Lima concluded, with more than half a million faithful along the Castellana.
At the other end of the artery, this Sunday the guest benches configured a scenario similar to that of the 2011 celebration: without the President of the Government, who at that time was José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and today Pedro Sánchez, and with the main faces of the Popular Party occupying the front rows of the political and institutional representation.
Thus, given the scarce governmental presence, with Minister Milagros Tolón as a representative of Moncloa, it led to the high institutional officials of the PP acting as hosts alongside the Kings: José Luis Martínez-Almeida and Isabel Díaz Ayuso garnered much of the spotlight, in contrast to Saturday’s reception events, where the President of the Government and other important members of the Council of Ministers were present. In 2011, as now, the leader of the opposition did attend, then Mariano Rajoy and today Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Sánchez’s absence, which clashes with the strategy proposed by Moncloa, foresees that the head of the Executive will accompany Leo XIV in numerous events throughout his trip, including the mass convened at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. He will also receive him in the Canary Islands, where the Pope will learn firsthand about the migratory crisis in Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
A governmental roadmap that the opposition distrusts. Both the PP and Vox believe that the Government is trying to use Leo XIV’s visit to divert attention from the complex judicial situation affecting the PSOE in recent weeks. On behalf of Vox, by the way, among several leaders of the party’s leadership, the spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, attended the mass.
Comparisons with 2011 even extend to the decorations. Both then and now, the Madrid City Council, the house where both masses were held, took the opportunity to distinguish the Pope with the highest honor granted by the capital: the Golden Key of Madrid. A decade and a half ago, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón presented Benedict XVI with this distinction at the Puerta de Alcalá; now, José Luis Martínez-Almeida took advantage of a few minutes before the celebration of the mass, in a meeting inside the Palacio de Cibeles.
Subsequently, just before the Eucharist began, the great ovation of the day was for the Kings, who attended both the presentation of the Golden Key and the mass, where they had a prominent space on the main stage.
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