MADRID (OSV News) — Madrid’s famous Bernabéu soccer stadium, normally packed with fans of the Real Madrid football club, roared with cheers and songs of praise to the Lord June 8 as 80,000 Catholics prayed together with Pope Leo XIV.
“Behold the Church, dear brothers and sisters! Behold the music of the Gospel, with its compelling rhythm,” the pope told the crowd, which erupted repeatedly in chants of “Papa Leon!” and “Olé, olé, olé!”
In an unscripted moment at the start of his speech, Pope Leo quipped, “I think that for a player, scoring a goal in this stadium is a major milestone in life. But … today, the Church in Madrid scored an amazing goal that will go down in history!”
Pope Leo, whose given name is Robert Prevost, revealed a preference for the home team a few days earlier when a journalist on the papal plane asked whether he supported Real Madrid or its rival Barcelona. “The pope is for all teams,” he said. “But Prevost is for Real Madrid.”
Golden rose before beloved image of Mary
Before arriving at the stadium, Pope Leo visited Madrid’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Almudena, where he laid a golden rose before the beloved image of the Virgin Mary, invoking her intercession for the Church in Madrid.
Cardinal José Cobo Cano, the archbishop of Madrid, welcomed the pope to Bernabéu with quotes from a sermon by St. Augustine, in which the saint wrote, “Sing with your voices, your hearts, your lips and your lives: Sing to the Lord a new song.”
During the evening event of prayer and testimony, Pope Leo was serenaded by many musical performances, including by a group of singing priests.
The pope listened to several testimonies from Catholics in the Archdiocese of Madrid, including a recently baptized young man, a priest, a couple who emigrated from Peru and a lay member of a diocesan council.
Among the most moving accounts was that of Álvaro, 33, who described why he decided to be baptized last year. He recounted feeling spiritually empty before an unexpected desire to read the Bible.
‘Felt a strange pull’ from high school Bible
“I felt a strange pull — a small, old Bible from my high school religion class that was tucked away in a drawer at my mother’s house. … I felt that Bible calling me to read it,” he said.
“Reading the Bible every day led me to know God, to know Jesus, and that led me to pray, and praying brought me a direct connection with him, something I had never felt anything like in my life,” he said. “In less than a month, I am getting married, and we would greatly appreciate your blessing. And so, it is no longer about me but about bringing my family closer to God.’
In response to the young man’s testimony, Pope Leo said, “Baptism truly changes lives.” He encouraged Madrid’s Catholics to “have confidence in the growing phenomenon of people who return to the faith or come to know it for the first time in adulthood.”
Also among those who testified were Jorge Barco and Liliana Torres, a Peruvian couple who immigrated to Spain with their daughter four years ago. They described finding a welcoming home in the Parish of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, where they serve on the parish council, assist with sacramental preparation and volunteer with Caritas.
‘Reach the heart of the city’
In the pope’s speech, he urged Madrid’s Catholics to “bear witness to the Gospel in the capital of a great European country.” He said there is “a special relationship between the Church and a city,” stressing the need to preach the Gospel in an urban environment to “reach the heart of the city.”
“Together, as a diocesan Church, you can offer a Gospel witness that will harness the best forces of a humanity that is bombarded with images and words, yet is hungry for justice and thirsty for truth,” he added.
He also warned against reducing parish and diocesan councils to “mere bureaucratic formalities,” saying they should be “spaces of mutual listening for the exercise of discernment,” adding that communal discernment is “one of the greatest opportunities that synodality offers” to priestly ministry.
After his speech, Pope Leo led the crowd in praying the Our Father together before bestowing his apostolic blessing.
“Be, for everyone, like an open Bible: may the word of God be found in your faces and in your lives,” he said.
The evening event in Bernabéu stadium was the final public engagement of the Madrid leg of the pope’s seven-day apostolic journey to Spain. On June 9, Pope Leo is scheduled to travel to Barcelona before continuing on to the Canary Islands June 11.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
