On June 7, Pope Leo XIV gathered more than 1.2 million people in Madrid for an open-air mass, The Guardian reports. The event started at 10:00, but people arrived early, like 29-year-old Elena Cabiedas at 5:00. According to the woman, “this is a historical event.”
The pontiff called for helping the poor and migrants, and also criticized far-right politics, saying that one cannot pray to God and at the same time despise one’s neighbor.
Amid conflicts with US President Donald Trump's administration over migration and Iran, the pope has divided Christian values and populism, finding more common ground with Spain's leftist government than with conservatives.
