Last Monday, January 12, the event Llamados 2033 was held at the Movistar Madrid Arena. It was organized by the parish of Santo Domingo de Algete, from the diocese of Alcalá de Henares, and Alpha España, with explicit support from the aforementioned diocese.
As has become customary in recent times in the Church in Spain, it was a festival with a massive vocation (6,000 tickets sold; total sell-out); and the name indicated a goal: “Called: united toward 2033. Let us celebrate together hope, unity, and mission”.
On the event’s website, one could read: “On January 12, 2026, the Movistar Arena in Madrid will host the LLAMADOS – United toward 2033 encounter. This is not a show: it is a unique moment of praise and prayer, with music, testimonies, and inspiration to walk together toward 2033, when we will celebrate the 2,000 years of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. We will enjoy great praise from Hillsong España. We will be able to hear Nicky Gumbel (pioneer of Alpha) and his vision of 2033. We will share testimonies from well-known Christian influencers and content creators, who will tell us how to bring Jesus’ message to the digital world. We will have a time where we can experience the Lord’s presence through worship in a great Prayer of Mercy, accompanied by the team from the parish of Santo Domingo de la Calzada and the religious musical group SALVE, who will sing on this occasion together with the youth Worship group from the OMJ.
Open to everyone, of any age, context, or beliefs. From 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the Movistar Arena”.
Tickets could be purchased on the Movistar Arena website, initially starting at 15€, but the page indicated that prices ranged between 66€ and 71.5€. It wasn’t very clear to me, but it wasn’t cheap for an event lasting three and a half hours (from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.).
According to its organizers, the event fits within the call to the New Evangelization and sought to ensure that “each person leaves more in love with Christ and more available for the mission”.
Let us analyze the quoted text from their portal and the event images, shared in real time on the Llamados Instagram account, and comment on what we consider most important:
- First, the venue of the event: a multi-purpose space where sports are practiced and, above all, musical concerts are held. This is the trend in recent times: the Church wants to show that we are many, that we fill stadiums, that this is alive. Perhaps in the territory of the diocese of Alcalá there is no place to gather so many people and it had to be held in another diocese…
- Second, the promotional poster, in burgundy red (red is Alpha’s corporate color) and without any Christian symbol.
- The text says that “it is not a show”, but the description of the event’s dynamics itself contradicts it: three hours of Protestant evangelical music (Hillsong), somewhat famous influencers chatting, more music with the worship group from the organizing parish—Catholic?—and the presence of Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Anglicans, creators of Alpha in England. Plus, Protestant-style praise: music with arms raised, the Blessed Sacrament illuminated with spotlights that is paraded around the stadium while a “great prayer of Mercy” is prayed and it is called Yeshúa. It must be that The Chosen, a series directed by a Protestant gentleman, is too trendy and we’ve come to believe that’s the Gospel. To show that we are Catholic, in addition to the Blessed Sacrament, it ends with a song to Mary and applause.
- Open to everyone, of any age, context, or beliefs. It seems like an encounter of the false ecumenism type. This was not mentioned in the poster or in all the pre-event promotion, but on Instagram there was an image highlighting this ecumenical aspect. But it is, as we see, false ecumenism. True ecumenism is that all Christians from other denominations return to the Catholic Church, the only true one, founded by Jesus Christ. Forgetting doctrine and the serious reasons for the separation of the “brothers”, formerly called heretics, and spoon-feeding the concept of ecumenism through music is the “pastoral” way of deceiving the little ones and diverting their faith.
We already addressed this topic on another occasion, when the youth delegations of the dioceses of Madrid, Getafe, and Alcalá celebrated the Walk on Wonder event: what fruits can be expected from a fleeting, massive, and noisy event? It is true that God can raise up children of Abraham from the stones, but noise and bewilderment are not the most suitable environment for listening to God, who speaks in silence.
I wonder, on the other hand, how far the money from the poor faithful who believe in these setups and intend to attend everything will stretch, considering that just 3 days earlier, on Saturday, January 10, Hakuna was performing in Madrid. Although it is not new either that these neoconservative events, which is the characteristic that unites them, are blatantly classist and elitist, not suitable for middle-class Catholic pockets.
Furthermore, how does any of this impact the life of the parishes and the faith of the people? If there are fruits, they seem to be no more than a trickle, because there are thousands of parishes in Spain and, as far as it seems, only certain well-off neoconservative parishes have the “life” shown by these events, like the organizing one, or also Caná in Pozuelo, Santa Inés in Barcelona, etc., the “Eucharists” of the Neocatechumenal Way, and charismatic encounters and other types like Emaús and Efetá. Fortunately, a trickle in the great sea of the network of parishes in Spain. I don’t mean to say that it doesn’t matter, because every soul matters.
It seems risky and even provocative to adopt a critical perspective to analyze the event, when everything that could be read in the Catholic press throughout the week was, of course, laudatory and triumphant. Since Monday, when moments of the show were broadcast live on Instagram by various influencers, and throughout the week, the narrative has been one of triumphalism: “the Church is alive. This capacity for mobilization shows it”. For me, however, what worries me is what ecclesial encounters are turning into and what they show. It occurred to me to post on my Instagram account (@catolicaperpleja) a video of the event on the same Monday as it unfolded, simply pointing out the fact that it didn’t seem Catholic, but Protestant, and the post was filled with negative comments. It seems to be the mark of a prophet of doom not to rejoice that the Church is “so alive” and has that capacity for mobilization and that youth.
But it’s that, in addition to the type of show, which in no way resembles the silence and reverence with which the Church has always adored the sacramented Jesus Christ, in this particular event, I find the promotion of this false ecumenism taken for granted and celebrated especially grave. Celebrated, moreover, in such a triumphant way like this that it scares: cheering the creation of this neo-church pseudo-ecumenical that voluntarily breaks with its bimillennial tradition and twists the mandate of unity that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us. Because unity can only be in the truth.
Of course, I am not the only one who is worried. We are many, thank God, although we don’t go around proving it by filling a stadium. Talking about the topic these days with a good friend, she made a painful reflection with which I want to end this text because it gives much food for thought.
My friend said that progressive Catholicism was and is nefarious but that, at least, despite seeking to get closer to the poor following an evangelical mandate, many priests and nuns ended up forgetting the reason for being so, dedicating their lives to the most needy.
However, this “Catholicism” of shows that we are now living, neoconservative, is bourgeois, in the bad sense of the word, and frivolous. Pure sentimentalist entertainment. It’s about going to have a good time. This does not intend to deny that there are many young people here who do it with good will and facing God: that they participate in this new conservative-pentecostal Catholicism while living their lives with faith and fervor. After all, they don’t see any other type of Church around them other than the moribund parishes, and these massive events, the youth, transmit the sensation of a living, exultant Church, and they genuinely think that there they will be in a Christian community and will encounter God.
The serious thing, despite that scenario in Llamados 2033 that shows a cross (naked, by the way, without the Crucified, in Protestant style), is that what is being promoted is a newly discovered religion that does not show a life of cross and combat; but religion seen simply as something joyful, an enjoyment of earthly life. Something that is frivolous and false, corrosive to the extreme. It is a denial of everything that Catholicism is, everything that the Revelation and Christian life imply. Where does it come from? From blind men leading other blind men while the hierarchy looks on complacently that they are capable of gathering crowds while neglecting their function of teaching? Or is it the hierarchy itself that promotes this narrative that is nothing more than a mirage, while parishes die, religious orders and seminaries empty, and the sacraments plummet?