Many Spanish Catholics and surely many others who are not will have felt a real frustration that Francis broke with the papal tradition of visiting our country. If John Paul II set foot on our territory up to five times and Benedict XVI - in just over eight years - three more times, it was impossible not to ask Bergoglio incessantly after his election as the successor of Saint Peter when he was going to travel to Spain and, in recent years, why he was not doing it.
The fact is that the Holy Father passed away without setting foot on what Wojtyla called his "beloved land of Mary." And it did not help, quite the opposite, to dispel that the cause was due to unsuspected reasons when, in 2019, in a display of sincerity and not a little imprudence, Francis said that he would only come to our country "when there is peace".
The speculations surrounding that outburst were endless. There were those who understood that he was referring to the internal conflicts within a Episcopal Conference that had fought bitter internal battles in previous years and in which not everything was precisely in tune with its highest authority, the Pope; nor were those lacking who alluded to the climate of such political polarization in Spain that even a possible trip by Francis was doomed to be deviously instrumentalized with partisan interests. Bergoglio endured the pressure well, in any case, never dispelling the doubt about his cryptic words, merely clarifying that he "was eager to come."
After his unexpected election, caused by the historic resignation of a very tired Benedict XVI in 2013, the first to invite the new Holy Father to set foot in Spain was, through diplomatic channels, the government then led by Mariano Rajoy. And, in person, the same was conveyed a year later by King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia, who were received in a cordial audience by the new Pope just a few weeks before the Spanish Monarch abdicated.
Only a few months after that same 2014, King Felipe and Queen Letizia made their first official visit abroad as monarchs precisely to the Vatican, where Francis received them in a meeting that also lasted a few minutes longer than the strict protocol of the Holy See dictates in audiences with foreign leaders, as a clear gesture of deference to sovereigns who, let's not forget, have among their titles that of Catholic Majesties.
Felipe VI urged the Holy Father to participate in the celebrations of the Jubilee Year for the 500 years since the birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus in 2015. It was an effort in which our diplomacy spared no effort, ultimately in vain.
There would be another plethora of invitations to the Pope, up to this same 2025 included, to try to attract him with all kinds of reasons: whether for the Holy Year of Compostela, or for him to preside over the events for the five centuries since the conversion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus - not even because the Pope had been a Jesuit, there was a way...
And with each declined invitation, of course, the rumors about why such resistance grew. Some Vatican experts added as an argument the supposed tension between the Sánchez government and the Spanish Church due to decisions such as the exhumation of Franco's remains from the Valley of the Fallen, while others included in the basket of explanations the crisis caused by the delicate issue of sexual abuse within the Church, including the report on such reprehensible acts by the Ombudsman.
Francis, so straightforward in his language and prone to clichés, rejected in more than one speech the gossip, which he defined as "poisonous" and "wars that destroy what God does". If we take his word for it, it is fair to assume that he traveled to Spain because he committed, according to his words, not to set foot in any large country in Europe until he had visited all the small ones. Of course, Spain was not the only country where his absence was controversial, not to mention his own homeland, Argentina, where for political reasons he did not set a date to travel as Pontiff. And the reality is that Spain has been, along with Germany, the only one of the major EU nations he has never visited.
Setting aside, as is logical, his many trips to cities in Italy, the comparison between Spain and France, which was indeed visited by the Pope, became odious. Although Bergoglio emphasized that he had not made any official trip to France, but had focused exclusively on accompanying the most needy as he did when he went to Marseille to once again denounce that the Mediterranean Sea is a cemetery for immigrants. And, to be fair, Francis declined the invitation to preside over the reopening of Notre Dame by a disappointed Macron.
It is paradoxical, however, that while Francis has not traveled to Spain, during his Pontificate he has not stopped constantly receiving all our political authorities, including the presidents of almost all the autonomous communities. Just recently, the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, was received in audience at the Vatican on two occasions. The leader of Sumar boasted of her supposed total harmony with the Pontiff on issues such as workers' rights.
Last November, Francis received Pedro Sánchez. From Moncloa, it was emphasized that the meeting had sought to "unite efforts to reduce international tension, promote dialogue, and defend human rights." And the truth is that the meeting served the head of the government to try to boast about what he defines as "humanitarian migration policy," in line with that advocated by the Holy Father, at a time when the European Union began to reconsider a shift in its guidelines on this matter, suddenly citing the strategy followed by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as an example.
With the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Rodríguez Ayuso.Efe
Sánchez also arrived at the Vatican not with an invitation to the Pope, but with two, for him to visit Spain: one to the Canary Islands for him to see firsthand the solidarity of its inhabitants with migration; and another on the occasion of the IV International Conference for Development Financing to be held in Seville next June.
By then, the Holy Father had shown his determination to travel to the Canary Islands to raise his voice once again against the migration crisis. His frail health prevented that desire from materializing.