Pope Leo XIV urges Spain to end polarization as he begins first papal visit in 15 years

On Saturday evening in Madrid's Plaza de Lima, an estimated 500,000 people, many of them young, chanted "This is the youth of the pope" at a prayer vigil that looked more like a rock concert. It was the emotional peak of the first day of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Spain, the first by a pope in 15 years, since Benedict XVI came in 2011 for World Youth Day.

Leo, known as León XIV in Spanish, is an American who traveled to Spain dozens of times as a priest. He opened a weeklong trip in Madrid, where King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met him at the airport. In his welcome address he asked Spaniards, political leaders above all, to put polemics aside and invest in educating young people to value diversity and complexity rather than avoid them.

"Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to have grown rather than diminished, and human dignity continues to be violated," he said. He pointed to Spain's 800-year Moorish past, when cities such as Toledo and Córdoba became, in his words, "centers of dialogue between languages, religions and knowledge." He invited everyone to set aside divisive narratives about Spain's society and history, which he said would help Europe overcome sterile simplifications.

He arrives at a tense moment. Spaniards are increasingly divided over immigration, feminism and political corruption, and the country has long dealt with territorial and independence movements. Sánchez's Socialist-led government has been hammered by a series of corruption scandals. The Popular Party and Vox have called on him to step down ahead of a general election due by next year, and have sharply criticized his migration policy. The government has bucked the trend in Europe and the United States by announcing legal status for potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in Spain without authorization, arguing that legal migration helps an economy with an aging workforce and a low birth rate.

The church faces its own credibility problem. Shaped by the anticlerical violence of the 1936-1939 civil war, it has more recently been confronted with revelations of decades of clergy abuse and cover-up. Leo confirmed he will meet survivors. "Abuses are still an open wound," he told reporters. The king also raised the subject, saying such cases "neither are nor can be representative of the immense ecclesial community," and praised the church's clarity and firmness, an apparent reference to a recently launched church-state reparations system for some victims.

There are also signs of renewed interest in faith. Sociologist Narciso Michavila Núñez, president of the polling firm GAD3, says recent surveys show growing interest among Gen Z Spaniards, and he and others cite the success of Rosalía's overtly spiritual album "Lux." "God is not in fashion," he said, but God "is not a taboo anymore." Leo himself, speaking to reporters en route, said he was heartened by reports of a spiritual awakening among the young, while conceding that Bad Bunny, who has two concerts this weekend, is stiff competition. Asked to choose, he said, many would pick Bad Bunny, but a few will come to see the pope, "and that says something."

The centerpiece in Madrid comes Monday, when Leo addresses a joint session of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate, the first such speech by a pope. Some protests are expected. Midweek he goes to Barcelona to celebrate Mass in the Sagrada Familia on the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death.

The trip ends with two days in the Canary Islands, fulfilling a wish of Pope Francis. The archipelago, closer to Africa than to the Iberian Peninsula, is a key destination for migrants leaving West Africa. Leo will meet migrants and the humanitarian groups caring for them, and is expected to toss a wreath into the sea from the port in Las Palmas, nicknamed the "Dock of Shame" in 2020 when thousands slept outdoors for weeks during a surge in arrivals. Constantina Nchama, an immigrant from Equatorial Guinea, called the visit something that happens once in a lifetime.

The visit also marks a return of papal attention to Europe's Christian heartland, after Francis largely favored smaller, more distant Catholic communities. Monday's speech in parliament is the next thing to watch.