Divine intervention: why Pope Leo visit could be a godsend for Pedro Sánchez

While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous. The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals. In the Plaza de Cibeles, in front of the wedding-cake palace that serves as the seat of Madrid city council, the huge stage from which Leo will say mass on Sunday in front of as many as 1 million worshippers is taking shape. The Paseo del Prado, which runs off Cibeles and down to the eponymous museum, is hung with banners welcoming the pope and urging the faithful to heed Jesus’s words in the Gospel of John and “ alzad la mirada” , or “lift up your eyes”. Workers prepare the decorations for the grand papal mass that will take place in Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty For a country that is not the Roman Catholic redoubt it was 50 – or even 20 – years ago, there is palpable excitement over the first papal visit since Benedict XVI came to Spain in 2011. Back then, 71.7% of Spaniards described themselves as Catholics; today, that figure has slumped to 56.1% , with only 18.3% of them practising. …