This Tuesday its first mass bath took place in Barcelona, in the , where it closed an afternoon prayer vigil that began with a ride in a popemobile that lasted more than 15 minutes with the public enthusiastic. Before 40,000 dedicated people of all ages, who at three in the afternoon (five hours earlier) were already beginning to climb Montjuïc mountain in large groups, a four-hour event closed with musical performances, videos and debates. In his speech, Leo XIV spoke of , as “the fatigue of believing” or “the nights of the ecclesial journey”; but he has also heard the testimonies of three young people who have brought to the fore realities such as mental health or gender violence.
In interventions alternating between Catalan and Spanish almost equally, the Pontiff has used the word “” when lamenting violence against women, an issue to which he has been sensitive on other occasions, but which in Spain has a political charge, due to the extreme right’s rejection of the expression sexist violence. The Pope has also asked that it be among his priorities, “because it is increasingly threatened in societies that are considered advanced.”
It was after hearing the testimony of Desiré, a 20-year-old law student, who asked him how he could forgive his father, who tried to kill his mother and ended up in jail after killing the person who prevented him. The mother “entered the world of drugs,” she said, and she herself grew up in social institutions and, with moments of good and bad, she has embraced faith. Leo “We are all called to address this dramatic reality with anthropological and cultural roots; it is up to us to confront it in all dimensions,” he urged.
Dedicated young people
As he did in Madrid, and with an audience made up of many young people, the Pope has called to “cultivate restlessness” in a society where “the idolatry of profit and performance, the desire to produce winners and the cult of the image are nothing more than anesthetics to numb the conscience.” Hence his invitation, in response to the questions of a catachumen named Ferran, to “critical thinking regarding a social system that does not put the person at the center and causes situations of injustice and poverty at different levels.” The references to mental health were made in response to Carmina, a teacher at l’Hospitalet, who asked her “where you can see God” in “dark” situations like the one she went through, depression and even attempted suicide.
The excitement of seeing the Pope up close was clearly visible from early in the afternoon on the walk to the stadium. Groups of and from different congregations, families, school groups, parish representatives… faithful among whom the parishes of Catalonia have distributed tickets in recent weeks. Analysis
The Nazareth religious school in Esplugues de Llobregat attended with 20 ESO and Baccalaureate students after preparing in class. “It is a unique experience that will not happen again for a long time,” commented one of the students, while another student added: “There are more young people than I expected,” reports Lorraine Delorenzo. Lidia Flores and Juan Cuevas, coworkers at the Granollers General Hospital, got tickets just four days ago, on the waiting list: “I couldn’t believe it. It’s the most important appointment of our lives,” they said.
which the Pope will inaugurate on Wednesday, has had a prominent role, with mini-conferences on the cross of the Tower of Jesus Christ or the figure of the architect Antoni Gaudí, which the public has applauded shouting “For the Gaudí Year, the Pope is here.” As the castells have been, the human tower that in this case has raised the gang of the Castellers of Vilafranca, a 3 of 8eight floors of three people.
At the institutional level, bishops, cardinals and the main authorities were in the first rows of the event: the president Salvador Illa; the Government delegate, Carlos Prieto; he president from the Parliament, Josep Rull; and the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who attended accompanied by his partner.
