Papal pressures
The Pope was well-received in Spain, but political tensions have been mounting
Is a Papal visit meant to be exciting? In Spain, it wasn’t enough for some. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, having fulfilled his obligations on the first day of the Pope’s visit, jetted off to music festival Primavera Sound. The headlines turning away from his government’s corruption scandals was the only blessing he needed. After amnesties, police raids, and arrests, only the Pope could have calmed the turbulent sea of Spanish politics, albeit for six days.
Despite being the country most famed for its defence of the Catholic faith, like the rest of Western Europe, Spain isn’t particularly religious. More than double regularly go to church than in the UK, but this comparison doesn’t flatter either nation. Even so, everything stopped when the Pope arrived on Saturday. Huge crowds saw him parade through Madrid, and then 1.2 million gathered at the mass he celebrated on Sunday.
Beyond this public spectacle, the Bishop of Rome also addressed Spain’s parliament. In a fiercely divided Spain, and a legislature which hasn’t been able to pass a budget for four years, the opportunities for strife were endless. As Leo XIV rose to the tribune, this was what Bruce Buffer would call “the moment we’ve all been waiting for”.
The Pope’s masterplan was to leave every faction of the parliament slightly unhappy. The Left turned serene but stale as he spoke up against abortion, saying, “all human life should be recognised and looked after from conception”. Then, ashen-faced but admonishing, conservatives had to stomach calls for more charity for immigrants and respect for “universal human dignity”. This impasse of irritation remained unbroken until el Papa’s speech had ended, and there were seven minutes of applause from the entire chamber. Newspaper El País called it a miracle.
However, all was not quite as happy as it seemed. The far left and right were not going to let things go perfectly smoothly. Ione Belarra, the leader of the progressive populists Podemos, told reporters that “they had made the temple of democracy a Church” — going on to compare the Pope to an Ayatollah. The Spanish left have an infamously anti-clerical tradition and, divided, are in desperate need of attention, but the Spanish Right’s response was more nuanced.
Vox and Partido Popular (PP) congressmen were those that sustained the seven-minute ovation when others began to flag. However, just because they saluted Pope Leo did not mean they were going to let him have his own way. Migration is Vox’s most potent attack line, and the Pope’s plea to think not in terms of “demographics or the economy” but “morality and justice” did not spark any Damascene conversion. Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, clearly prepared for questions on migration, suggested Spain should copy the Vatican’s policy on those who enter it illegally: “fine them and put them in prison.”
Spain’s most popular left-wing politician, Gabriel Rufián, the leader of the Catalan Republican Left, pointed out the two-faced nature of the right-wing response. He posted that “Vox and the PP have applauded for 7 minutes what they’ve jeered and vetoed in Congress for 7 years.” At the same time, he refused to criticise the Papacy’s position on abortion and euthanasia, saying with deep profundity: “well, he’s the Pope.”
The heavenly ceasefire had survived but, as President Trump would say, it was merely “shooting in a more moderate manner”.
Only one politician went over the top in front of the Pope. This was the parliamentary leader of the Catalan centrists Junts, Miriam Nogueras. She spoke to the Pope in English and told him “that speaking the language of the land that welcomes him is a wonderful act of respect”.
Lecturing the Pope on hospitality displayed typically Catalan levels of tact, but was a response to politics a couple of hours eastwards. There, her party is threatened by the far-right Catalan separatist maximalists Aliança Catalana and their leader, Sílvia Orriols. Orriols isn’t going to the Pope’s mass in Barcelona on Tuesday because it will be mostly held in Spanish. For those keen on a 19th-century battle between nationalism and the Catholic Church, in Spain they are easily found.
After Catalonia, the Pope’s visit will continue when he arrives in the Canary Islands. Here, the focus will be squarely on migration as he visits an aid centre for new arrivals. More than 3,000 migrants died last year trying to reach Spain, and the Catholic Church’s charitable organisation Caritas leads attempts to help those arriving “without papers”. The Church was a significant backer of the controversial immigration amnesty Pedro Sánchez introduced earlier this year. While this is unlikely to spark into a serious conflagration, the tensions between the Papacy and Spain’s right are mounting.
If anything is as universal as the Catholic Church, it is corruption in Spanish politics
Though the Pope told Spain’s politicians: “Political pluralism should not degenerate into the permanent denigration of the adversary.” They are unlikely to follow his instruction. If anything is as universal as the Catholic Church, it is corruption in Spanish politics, but a government with enough sins to be voted out thrice over remains in a state of office cum purgatory. Unable to do anything, it is kept in power by separatist fear of Spain’s right, no matter how tainted the government’s regional backers become.
Neither the Pope nor politicians can solve this impasse — only elections. A better reason than any to believe in a higher power.
