Pope Leo XIV walks along Alcala Street during the Corpus Christi procession following the Holy Mass held in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid on June 7, 2026.
More than 1.2 million people filled the streets of Madrid on Sunday for a mass by Pope Leo XIV at which he called for a renewal of the Catholic faith in Spain.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia joined throngs of devotees waving Spanish and Vatican flags in Cibeles Square for a service filled with religious symbolism.
In his homily, Pope Leo said Spaniards should not look at religion as "a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today".
The mass comes on day two of Pope Leo's seven-day visit to Spain, a traditional Catholic bastion where religious observance has been declining sharply in recent years as in much of western Europe.
