The announced speech of Leo XIV before the General Courts has been a coordinated initiative in conversations between Cardinal José Cobo and the Pontiff, and subsequently confirmed with the support of two major parliamentary groups, according to what Religión Confidencia has revealed, which allowed Congress and Senate to officially issue the invitation.
The Pope’s intervention will take place on June 8 at 10:30 in the Congress of Deputies and will make Leo XIV the first Pontiff to formally address the Spanish Cortes. Neither Saint John Paul II nor Benedict XVI delivered speeches in the Lower House during their visits to Spain.
Cobo the intermediary before the Cortes
Sources from the organizing team explained to the aforementioned medium that, after the initial contacts between Cobo and the Pope, they worked discreetly to ensure the necessary political consensus. Finally, the boards of Congress and the Senate approved the proposal unanimously, after the support of the main parliamentary groups.
The dimension of the event has also been highlighted by the Spanish Episcopal Conference. During the official presentation of the apostolic trip, the president of the Episcopal Conference, Mons. Luis Argüello, stated that Leo XIV’s intervention could “contribute to the regeneration of political life”.
Argüello also highlighted the institutional significance of the Bishop of Rome intervening in the place where Spanish laws are made. In his opinion, the Pope’s relevance transcends the strictly ecclesial sphere because he is a figure with internationally recognized moral and spiritual authority.
A moment of social tension and political polarization in Spain
The future intervention of Leo XIV arrives in a context of strong political polarization and growing secularization of Spanish society, factors that increase the expectation about the content of the speech and the reactions it may provoke inside and outside Parliament.
The preparation of the event was carried out with special discretion. According to Religión Confidencial, members of the Madrid curia involved in the organization pointed out that the Holy See paid a lot of attention to the political and symbolic context of the trip. They also indicated that both Congress and Senate showed full willingness from the beginning to receive the Pontiff.