Awaiting the complete and detailed publication of León XIV’s travel agenda to Spain —scheduled for this midday—, it has been advanced that the Pontiff will star on June 8 in an unprecedented gesture in the recent history of the Church and Spanish politics: He will be the first Pope to address the Cortes Generales in a joint session of Congress and Senate.
According to some media outlets that have advanced it, the Vatican considers this act as the most sensitive and delicate moment of the entire apostolic journey of the Pontiff to Spain.
The intervention will take place in a particularly tense political context and with several open fronts by the Government of Pedro Sánchez. Both in Rome and among the Spanish organizers, there is awareness that any word from the Pontiff on moral, social, or political issues will be examined in detail and used in the public debate.
León XIV will arrive at Congress
As confirmed by Europa Press, León XIV will arrive around ten in the morning at the Palacio de la Carrera de San Jerónimo crossing the Floridablanca courtyard. There, the traditional institutional reception reserved for heads of state will take place, with the playing of anthems and official honors.
Subsequently, accompanied by the President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, and presumably by the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, the Pontiff will greet representatives of both chambers and parliamentary spokespersons in the Salón de Pasos Perdidos. An official exchange of gifts and the signing of the Congress Honor Book are also planned.
The central act will be the Pope’s intervention in the hemicycle before deputies and senators gathered in a joint session, a formula usually reserved for events of great institutional solemnity and the first time a Pontiff formally addresses Spanish parliamentarians.
A speech prepared under direct supervision of the Vatican
According to Vida Nueva, the Holy See is already actively working on the speech that León XIV will deliver. As happens in this type of diplomatic interventions, the text will include contributions from various ecclesial sectors, including Spanish bishops, although the final supervision will fall directly on the Vatican Secretariat of State.
It is expected that the Pontiff will address issues linked to political coexistence, the common good, and the social situation in Spain. Some Vatican sources point to possible references to Saint Augustine —a spiritual figure very linked to Prevost— and also to the doctrinal legacy of Pope Francis, especially the encyclical Fratelli tutti.
A visit with social tensions
The visit takes place amid strong ideological polarization. On the table will be issues such as abortion —at a time when Sánchez insists on promoting its constitutional entrenchment—; euthanasia —with recent episodes like that of Noelia—; the advance of the profanation of the Valle de los Caídos —with advances announced for the month of June— and with the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid increasingly pointed out in the eye of the storm; and immigration, exponentially intensified after mass regularization and the growing social tension caused by the evident “call effect” in the country.
Without a doubt, the appearance of León XIV in the Cortes will be a historic event for Vatican diplomacy and, at the same time, one of the most tense political and media episodes of his entire visit to Spain.