The Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena hosted this Monday the celebration of Pope’s Day, on the occasion of the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, a day on which the Church prays in a special way for the Successor of Peter. The Eucharist was presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Piero Pioppo, who invited the faithful to entrust the ministry of Leo XIV and recalled the Pontiff’s recent visit to Madrid.
During the celebration, which was also attended by the Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid, Vicente Martín, and other priests of the archdiocese, the representative of the Holy See conveyed the Pope’s greeting and thanked him for “the fruitful service to the whole world” that, he stated, he has been providing since the beginning of his pontificate. “We have seen the Holy Father passing among us doing good as Jesus passed through villages, towns, and cities,” he noted during the homily.
“The Church prayed intensely for Peter”
Commenting on the passage from the Acts of the Apostles about the imprisonment of Saint Peter, Pioppo recalled that “while Peter was in prison, the Church prayed intensely for him” and stated that the same attitude must be maintained today with the Roman Pontiff.
“When we pray for the Pope, we also ask that the whole Church remain faithful to its mission—beautiful, strong, servant, close, and faithful to its supreme shepherd. Praying for him redounds to the entire Church and to each and every one of us,” he affirmed.
Recalling Leo XIV’s visit to Madrid
The Nuncio referred to the apostolic journey that Leo XIV recently made to the Spanish capital and maintained that his interventions “have awakened in all of us the love of the truth about God, about oneself, and about the indispensable values for building a better world for all.”
He added that the core of the Pontiff’s message during his stay in Spain was “faith in Christ and love as foundations of unity,” also referencing the episcopal and pontifical motto of Leo XIV: In Illo uno unum (“In the one Christ we are one”).
“Today’s man feels the need for God”
During the homily, Pioppo stated that “despite contrary appearances, today’s man feels that need for God very intensely” and warned that “material goods and greed are not enough” to respond to the concerns of the human heart.
In the final part of the celebration, he also recalled some words spoken by Leo XIV during his visit to Madrid, when he encouraged young people to be “missionaries of the Gospel in the face of the material and spiritual poverties of our time,” and concluded by entrusting the Pope to the Virgin of Almudena so that she may grant him “physical health and spiritual strength” in the exercise of his ministry.