In his first speech on Spanish soil, delivered this Saturday at the Royal Palace of Madrid before King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, the highest authorities of the State, representatives of civil society and members of the diplomatic corps, Pope Leo XIV thanked Spain for its “fidelity to international law and multilateralism” and encouraged strengthening dialogue, social friendship and the pursuit of peace.
The Pontiff’s address followed the welcoming words of King Felipe VI, who highlighted Spain’s deep Christian roots, praised the Church’s social and missionary work, and stressed the need to defend human dignity, human rights and democratic values at a time of profound cultural and technological change.
Below is the full text of Leo XIV’s address:
Your Majesties,
Your Royal Highnesses,
distinguished Authorities and members of the Diplomatic Corps,
ladies and gentlemen:
I thank the Lord for this meeting and express my gratitude for the invitation to undertake this apostolic journey to Spain: an itinerary in several stages, each of which will reveal some aspect of the multifaceted richness of a great country that, for nearly two millennia, has welcomed the Word of the Gospel.
Tradition has always linked the first evangelization of the Iberian Peninsula to the preaching of the Apostle James the Greater.
This bond carries considerable theological significance, because it expresses the local Church’s awareness of being in continuity with the apostolic mission born at Pentecost.
The ancient link between the Christian faith and this land, while on the one hand not exhausting the manifold identity of your people, has on the other profoundly shaped its culture and represents a source of hope and guidance amid the challenges that today, as a human family, we must face together.
I think of the expressions of popular faith that, in every city and town, constitute an authentic drama of salvation in rhythm with the year and in the various contexts of life.
Together with the artistic and musical heritage, with the many confraternities and charitable associations, they bear witness to the fruitful encounter between Jesus Christ and your people. It is a people full of passion, that loves life and shows it!
I come among you to confirm, encourage and inspire a renewed fidelity of believers to the Gospel, as well as a deeper reconciliation and cooperation among the various forces of this Nation.
Indeed, your own history suggests that it is not the culture of confrontation, but that of encounter, which generates stability and prosperity.
The message of peace that in these times, unfortunately, sounds to some naïve and to others provocative, finds welcome among those who do not shut themselves up in prefabricated ideologies, but open themselves to the truth.
As Pope Francis has taught us, there is, in fact, “a bipolar tension between idea and reality. Reality simply is, the idea is elaborated. Between the two there must be constant dialogue, lest the idea end up separated from reality. It is dangerous to live in the realm of words alone, of images, of sophistry” (Evangelii gaudium, 231).
Indeed - he concluded - “reality is greater than ideas” (ibid.). Truth is always greater than we are and therefore surprises us and draws us toward paths of purification and reconciliation, in which dialogue with others - and with the Other with a capital O - becomes fundamental.
In this regard, I would like to refer to two figures of this country who, for five centuries, have nourished the life of the Church and the spiritual search of many, even beyond its visible borders. They are John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila, who became friends in their passion for the divine Mystery. Theirs is a mysticism with open eyes, that is, not detached from history, but on the contrary reaching to the root of questions, to the heart of reality.
In particular, in interpreting the transformations and enduring the tensions that make our epoch so dark, the theme of night, so dear to Saint John of the Cross, whose Jubilee Year we are celebrating, helps us. In his thirst for light, paradoxically, he learned to appreciate darkness - “O happy night” (Dark Night, 3) - as the time when the soul is freed from what it presumed to know and possess.
Today too, what frightens us most, what in many provokes the darkness of reason and the violence of emotions, is the unknown, before which the feeling of no longer having maps, of disorientation, can prevail. That is why we also need, in public life, men and women who sense, in the darkness, the light; in the end, a possible beginning, almost the irruption of a truth like a light that still blinds, but which - if we trust and find peace - will gently lead us to itself: “O night that guided me! O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that joined Beloved with lover, lover transformed in the Beloved!” (ibid., 5).
Our age, which apparently is shaken by terrible imbalances and conflicts, cries out from its depths for peace, for a new knowledge of the human person and of his or her inviolable dignity, for the civilization of love (cf. Magnifica humanitas, 186).
Saint Teresa describes this same journey with the image of the interior castle. Advancing from room to room toward the most intimate place - that is, each one toward his or her own heart, sanctuary of truth - the space widens, the mind opens, contradictions are resolved, tensions dissolve, others find their place, the universe becomes home.
It is not an intimist escape, but a radical openness to the totus Alius et semper Novus, which is realized when we return to ourselves. This dimension of the human being is the reason why religious freedom and freedom of conscience must be protected.
Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to grow rather than diminish; human dignity continues to be violated. That is why we need culture, interiority, a free and quality education, we need transcendence.
And yet, from these dark nights, men and women faithful to the truth have been impelled to move from room to room until the point where, in conscience, justice and peace embrace. It is from their freedom that we learn to be free.
The Catholic Church is at the service of this thirst of the human heart. Not in an imposing way, but with the evangelical witness supported by a multitude of martyrs and saints, and today it is ready to place itself at the service of the future of a people that seeks reconciliation and peace.
I invite everyone, for love of the truth, to abandon the divisive and polarizing narratives of your social reality and its history, to move from sterile simplifications to a fruitful appreciation of complexity. I see here a specific vocation of Europe, of which Spain is an original and fundamental protagonist.
It is the gift that the Old Continent can offer the world if it wishes to remain young, for young is the one who feels that he or she still has a future and a mission that continue to challenge.
To appreciate complexity and study it, to learn not to deny it and to live it as a blessing, to flee from those identitarian approaches that seem to clarify everything but populate the world with ghosts and enemies: this is the task of those who have a great history behind them.
New technologies have become an artificial environment in which our fundamental choices are tested: within it, prejudices are exacerbated, critical thinking weakens, overbearing interests sow impulses of death.
On the other hand, good can resist and be communicated.
It is necessary, especially on the part of those who bear economic, political and institutional responsibilities, to make a qualitative leap, a change of course in investments destined for schools, universities and research, for local communities and civil society as seedbeds of participation and cultural mediation.
Security, which too often we delude ourselves comes from weapons and walls, matures rather by learning to walk alongside the other, to grow together, side by side. Your own history attests to this. The presence of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula, for example, constituted a political, cultural and religious reality of long duration.
During that period there was not only confrontation, but an attempt to create a space of contact, conversation and dialogue on the meaning of truth among Christians, Muslims and Jews.
In the school of translators of Alfonso X the Wise, experts belonging to the three religions collaborated in translating the rich Arabic, Greek and Hebrew heritage, contributing to the dissemination of texts such as, among others, those of the philosophers Averroes (1126-1198) and Maimonides (1138-1204).
In particular, cities such as Córdoba and Toledo became places of mediation between languages, religions and knowledge. But this is the truth told by European cities, their historical stratification, the fabric of solidarity that over the centuries has shaped their differences, transforming inevitable conflicts into points of departure.
As another noble son of this land taught us, in trials and failures it is possible to rethink everything: Ignatius of Loyola had this audacity, giving credit to the desolations and consolations of his heart, in an exercise of discernment and imagination by which he preferred peace to arms and saints to the powerful. He understood that the good to which he felt drawn was not utopian, and then his crisis was transformed into grace.
The same can happen with the “novelties” that unsettle us today and about which our sensibilities are divided.
“Let us avoid words that humiliate or confront. Let us choose the clarity that illuminates and the frankness that opens paths. Let us not bless naïve enthusiasms nor feed sterile fears. Rather, let us point to criteria of discernment - the dignity of the person, the universal destination of goods, the option for the poor, care for our common home, peace—and translate them into practices: responsible planning, assessments of human and social impact, inclusion of the most vulnerable, digital literacy, research and industry oriented toward justice and peace” (Magnifica humanitas, 14).
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, I express my gratitude to your country for its fidelity to international law and multilateralism, which translates into an active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples.
At the same time, I encourage you also to cultivate within yourselves dialogue and social friendship, to take into account the perspectives of the poor and the young when imagining the future, to harmonize the demands of autonomy and unity, and to drive forward the process of European union, not in opposition to other powers, but as a gift for the entire human family.
May God bless Spain!
