The Pope to a million faithful: ‘No to a comfortable, private faith, shut away in selfishness’

“It is not merely a matter of carrying out a monstrance, but of allowing ourselves to be led out of selfishness, indifference and a comfortable, private faith, so that we may respond to his call to conversion, to change our outlook, and to welcome his presence which transforms us and makes us builders of a new world”: said Pope Leo during Mass in Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles before an estimated 1.2 million faithful, according to local authorities. After Mass, the Pope led the Corpus Christi procession. He himself explained the meaning of the rite: “The Christ who passes through the streets in the monstrance is the same one who identifies with the poor, the sick, the lonely and the outcasts.” A clear emotion was visible on Pope Leo’s face at the end of the Corpus Christi procession, which concluded with a standing ovation from the square packed with over a million people. The procession was intense: the Pope carried the monstrance through the streets of Madrid for over half an hour.

During the Mass for Corpus Christi, celebrated in Madrid, the Pope offered a “message for Spain today and tomorrow: may the religious devotion that has inspired this country for centuries not be a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which we can still draw inspiration today”. “A school,” Leone emphasised, “that teaches us to kneel before God and before our neighbour, because no one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother; a school that teaches us the gratuitousness of love that becomes a gift, so that it may circulate amongst us and break the chains of all selfishness; a school from which we learn that God is a real presence and that we too are called to be present in the situations and challenges of society, not to flee, but to commit ourselves personally to building the common good”. To enable the faithful present to receive the Eucharist, 2,300 chalices are being used at the Corpus Christi Mass celebrated by the Pope in Madrid.

“The solemn processions of this day have shaped the piety, art, music, architecture and life of the Spanish people for centuries, and even today they express and manifest the spiritual sentiment of this country through the beauty and elegance of the floral carpets, the street altars, the care taken with the monstrances and displays, the hymns and the vestments,” added Pope Leo XIV in Plaza Cibeles, Madrid, during the celebration of Mass on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. “This is not a mere outward display, a survival of folklore or a simple aesthetic ornament: what is at stake here,” he emphasised, “is faith in the presence of the Risen Lord, who is alive and still walks among us, who becomes bread for our hunger for life and visits the corners of our hearts and our history, even the darkest ones.” At the end of Mass, the long Corpus Christi procession began, which will conclude with the solemn Eucharistic blessing imparted by the Pope.

The crowds remained thick on the ground after Mass for the most solemn liturgical moment that Pope Leo had chosen to include in his programme for his visit to Spain: through the central streets of Madrid, Prevost led the Corpus Christi procession, holding the monstrance aloft beneath the golden canopy, whilst the faithful scattered flower petals in his wake and the bells rang out in celebration. For reasons of order and security, it was necessary to reduce the number of people accompanying the Blessed Sacrament compared to the usual number for the Corpus Christi procession in Madrid. Lined up along the sides of the street, the procession includes, in addition to the necessary deacons and acolytes: children who received their First Communion this year, laypeople, consecrated persons, priests, all the cardinals, archbishops and bishops. The route of the procession began in Plaza de Cibeles, continued along Calle Alcalá towards Gran Vía, turned at the Church of San José and returned to Cibeles via the other street.