Divine intervention: why Pope Leo visit could be a godsend for Pedro Sánchez

A man walks past an advertisement for Pope Leo XIV's trip to Madrid, part of a six-day tour, including stops in Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty View image in fullscreen A man walks past an advertisement for Pope Leo XIV's trip to Madrid, part of a six-day tour, including stops in Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Divine intervention: why Pope Leo visit could be a godsend for Pedro Sánchez Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous. The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals. In the Plaza de Cibeles, in front of the wedding-cake palace that serves as the seat of Madrid city council, the huge stage from which Leo will say mass on Sunday in front of as many as 1 million worshippers is taking shape. The Paseo del Prado, which runs off Cibeles and down to the eponymous museum, is hung with banners welcoming the pope and urging the faithful to heed Jesus’s words in the Gospel of John and “ alzad la mirada” , or “lift up your eyes”. View image in fullscreen Workers prepare the decorations for the grand papal mass that will take place in Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty For a country that is not the Roman Catholic redoubt it was 50 – or even 20 – years ago, there is palpable excitement over the first papal visit since Benedict XVI came to Spain in 2011. Back then, 71.7% of Spaniards described themselves as Catholics; today, that figure has slumped to 56.1% , with only 18.3% of them practising. Still, Leo may take heart from a survey that found that the number of young people aged 15-29 who identify as Catholics rose from 31.6% in 2020 to 45% last year . He will also find a land far more politically polarised than it was 15 years ago. Issues such as housing, immigration, public services and a seemingly never-ending slew of political corruption allegations have created a febrile – some would say feral – political mood. The seven-day itinerary for Leo’s first visit to an EU country outside Italy, which takes in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, is a carefully curated mix of the official, the pastoral and the personal. View image in fullscreen Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to hold a mass in the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. Photograph: Lluís Gené/AFP/Getty As well as the protocol meetings with King Felipe, Queen Letizia and the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – and the inauguration of the Jesus Christ tower of the basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona – the pontiff will spend time with h