10 I highly doubt there is anyone left on the face of the earth who is not yet aware: in recent days, the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Madrid, Catalonia, and the Canary Islands has monopolized a large part of the media's news diet, both state and national. Any topic has been good to stir the pot: the proportion of Catalan he would use during homilies, the language of the blessing of the Jesus tower, who sang and performed at the shows, who would meet him, who wouldn't...Of all this, however, there has been one aspect that has particularly caught my attention, and I believe few people, perhaps out of shame, their own or others', or rather out of interest (in this case, entirely their own) have commented much on: Prevost's visit and speech to the Congress of Deputies.First of all, it is problematic that politicians of all stripes, and especially progressives, who should defend the non-confessionality (if not the secularism) of the State, have tried to pass off the visit of a religious leader as that of a head of state. That the highest representative of a religion on Earth visits a country is no small matter, and it certainly has its interest, especially for believers of that confession. But giving this gentleman spaces, focus, and microphones that should belong exclusively to the people and their representatives, such as Congress, should make us question whether everything has been done very well.Would anyone think of inviting Donald Trump to defend the legalization of weapons under the watchful eye of President Armengol? Who would find it normal for leaders like Putin and Netanyahu to go and harangue Spaniards to participate in their wars under Tejero's bullet holes? Would the deputies of practically all political parties applaud after hearing a fierce apology for the death penalty against realities such as homosexuality, transsexuality, or "adultery"?This, more or less, is what the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the upper house of the State have allowed: to give a voice in a place that should be primarily for the representatives of the citizens to a person who has gone to defend theses that attack not only current laws in our State, such as equal marriage, voluntary interruption of pregnancy, or euthanasia, but also some basic principles also enshrined in the Constitution (alas!).I ask myself if this would have happened fifteen years ago, during Zapatero's government. I ask myself if José María Aznar, or Felipe González, would have dared. Surely we will never know and we will have to settle for this image: a religious leader lecturing the people's representatives on topics that we have already resolved, that we are clear about, on which we should not have asked for the opinion of a man who will neither marry nor ever get pregnant, to mention only the topics that concern us. We can rest assured, however: in the end, all the politicians knew how to find a way to emphasize that the speech had favored them. They have become papists.

]]> The CIS figures say that the percentage of people who attend mass in Spain as a whole does not even reach twenty percent of the total population. In Catalonia, the percentage drops to less than half. The number of believers is higher, as we know, than those who actually practice. If we are talking about Roman Catholicism, this must oblige us to do something; the simple rhetorical manifestation of faith should not be enough. Almost half of the population defines themselves as atheist, agnostic, or indifferent. And perhaps the most noteworthy thing would be to know if it is more in the common good's interest for us to be Christians or not, or if things would collectively go better for us if there were an agreement, of Christian roots, among all of us. The visit of Pope Leo XIV to our country serves to make us ask many questions, especially seeing once again the fervor that a Holy Father arouses, far above what a pop star or any other civilian figure can motivate. All this passion has a point of stridency and comedy, even ugliness and posturing, and it forces us to ask ourselves why, while seemingly so devout and good people, we live in a society so unequal, unnecessarily violent, selfish, intolerant, and dismissive of differences. And it reminds us that the Church has been a den of criminals and pedophiles, protected by the curia, still an authority that seeks more to protect than to collaborate with justice and side with the victims. It is absolutely abominable. Because faith and morality must be one thing, and deeds another, and sympathizing with a pedophilia mafia (and art collecting and real estate speculation) must be yet another. I tried to listen to the pope's speech to politicians, but the first thing I thought was that it should not have happened, or not in the seat of popular sovereignty. A religious leader should not give political speeches in a parliamentary chamber, because we are not in an Islamic regime but in a liberal democracy that has separated the state from the Church. Obviously, he did politics there, or expressed his ideas in defense of 'human life', understood as a criticism of abortion and euthanasia. But nevertheless, not even the pope himself must believe what he preaches; he is well aware that neither here nor anywhere else will abortion be prohibited again, and the right to die with dignity is being implemented everywhere, because our life is ours, and not God's or the vicar's. All in all, it gives a rather pathetic whiff of intellectual and political decadence, or of a faith that is not authentic, but rather a faith in faith itself, or a belief in when beliefs used to work. Meaning is the longing for meaning. Even the Pope knows that God is dead and that deep down he lives on nostalgia. Paolo Sorrentino, with his series about popes, has understood all of this in an admirable way: everything is sustained by aestheticism and the will to believe that belief still has a strength that can no longer be drawn from anywhere, because we all know that it only has the entity of comedy or guilty hypocrisy. 

]]> It is true that Pope Leo XIV has not visited the Balearic Islands, but it is no less true that the Archipelago has been present since the first day of his tour of Hispanic lands, thanks to the reference made by the President of Congress to the wise Ramon Llull: “Justice procures peace and injustice, war” is one of the memorable sayings of one of the most important figures in our history and of tremendous relevance. Well chosen.

]]> Although Robert Prevost was elected pope just over a year ago, the public presence of Leo XIV has been a surprise to many. His start was discreet and his demeanor, prudent, very different from the spontaneous and somewhat excessive character of Francis, led many to believe he would be a transitional pontiff who would diminish the political and media weight of the Church. However, after a few months, this perception began to change and, in part, it was thanks to a compatriot of his: Donald Trump.

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