Between the smooth organisation, the strident tones of his address to the nation’s parliament, the fireworks over Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia and his focus on migrants, Leo XIV’s voyage to Spain has proved as noteworthy an event as was ever expected.
As he returned to Rome on Friday evening, Leo will have been afforded ample opportunity to dwell on the reception granted to him in the Iberian Peninsula this past week. He joked to journalists on the plane to Spain last Saturday about whether the young people would choose to see him, or Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny in Madrid. The answer was clear: some 1.2 million people turned out to greet the Pope for his Corpus Christi procession through the streets last Sunday.
