Madrid is more than just asphalt, hurried paces, and the hum of the M-30. Madrid is, above all, its people. And when those people decide to mobilize, the result is a tsunami of generosity that even the most optimistic members of the organizing committee failed to foresee.
A “Brutal” Response from Madrid
The numbers are impressive: over 18,000 volunteers have stepped forward to serve and lend a hand “in whatever capacity needed” during Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the capital. These are not just figures in a database; they are stories with names and surnames, beating hearts in Usera, Carabanchel, Villaverde, in each of Madrid’s 131 neighborhoods and 21 districts, and in each of the archdiocese’s 476 parishes.
While the main quota has already been filled due to the overwhelming success of the call, the organization continues to invite Madrileños to open their homes and hearts to welcome the pilgrims who are yet to arrive. Organizers estimate around 1.5 million pilgrims will attend. Attendance at the major events is free, requiring only registration via the tutorial published on the official social media profiles for the Spanish visit, conelpapa.es.
The Dizziness of the Numbers
We meet in the Virgen de la Fuensanta parish in the Usera district, south of the capital and very close to Plaza Elíptica, with Madrileño Catholics involved in volunteering for the “Augustinian Pope’s” visit. Pope Leo XIV will be in Spain from June 6 to 12, spending four days in Madrid before a flight to Barcelona and concluding his journey in the Canary Islands.
In the archdiocese, animated by Cardinal José Cobo-also Vice-President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference-Christians await the arrival of the Successor of Peter with the eagerness of a large family anticipating their father’s return home.
Jesús Pascual is a man of numbers, but above all, he is a joyful individual whose faith and commitment have been forged following Don Bosco’s pedagogy. He lives in Villaverde Bajo, belongs to the San Clemente Romano parish, and his professional life revolves around algorithms, technology, and “the digitization of companies.” He tries to explain this with the gesture of someone who will try as many times as necessary, even knowing he doesn’t always succeed.
However, for the past few months, his most important “company” has been coordinating the 18,000 volunteers who have signed up to help during the Pope’s visit to Spain. “I have been given this mission, which I have embraced with enthusiasm, joy, and a little dizziness because we are organizing something very serious,” Jesús confesses with the calm that comes from knowing one is in God’s hands.
He witnessed the registration system overflow. “We have exceeded our volunteer estimates by almost 50%,” he explains, emphasizing that Madrid has responded in a “brutal” way.
But Jesús doesn’t want us to focus solely on the cold figures. For him, this army of peace is an “amalgam of realities” that includes schools, universities, and associations. When asked how he would define the heart of this movement, he doesn’t hesitate: “It’s goodness, it’s joy, it’s a ‘I give myself’ and it doesn’t matter my age, it doesn’t matter where I live… there is a huge heart that gives itself to this mission.”
The volunteer spokesperson explains that they have divided the service into four main areas: preparation, reception in institutions, mass events, and finally, the most intimate pillar: families. “You feel a sense of pride because you realize that people are not selfish; it’s just that in our daily lives, we are immersed in our own world and don’t look at the person next to us,” he reflects with the depth of someone who knows well the loneliness of big cities and the growing individualism that clashes head-on with the generosity of the people of Madrid.
The Spiritual Temperature Rises
If there’s a place where the spiritual temperature is palpable when talking to its people, it’s the Virgen de la Fuensanta parish in Usera. There, we are welcomed by Fernando Rubio, a young priest who, before receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders, trod the halls of Journalism at the Complutense University. He is from Moncloa, but the neighborhood has “adopted” him, and he feels “very happy” with his first assignment. Fernando is a parochial vicar, collaborates as a journalist with the Archdiocesan Youth Delegation, and experiences this visit with a dual involvement: pastoral and communicative.
“The baseline temperature of these southern parishes is very high throughout the year; this is an addition to the pure fire we already experience here,” he says with a contagious smile. Fernando recounts that, at first, people thought the visit was fake news, but now the involvement is absolute: “It’s beautiful because we are a family eager to see how the father of all arrives in Madrid.”
To further warm the atmosphere and fuel the fire of the Pope’s arrival, Fer-as everyone in the neighborhood affectionately calls him-has begun publishing a series of videopodcasts with interviews with Madrileño Catholics of all ages, profiles, sensibilities, and conditions. They can be found to listen, watch, and download on Spotify and YouTube by searching for “Una Iglesia, mil voces.”
Fernando, who volunteered at WYD 2011 when he was 18 and had a girlfriend-far from imagining his ordination-remembers those days as “foundational” moments. Therefore, his request to the current volunteers is clear: “The invisible mission is that everyone who crosses their path recognizes how much they are loved by Christ; that they say: ‘I don’t know where these people come from, but they are very happy.'” For him, Pope Leo XIV setting foot in Madrid is sowing a seed of holiness on the asphalt.
An Augustinian Perspective from Carabanchel
A few minutes away, in the traditional Carabanchel, lives Nicole Aguilar. At 24, Nicole is a designer and works in the communication office of the Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR), a professional and spiritual connection that gives this Pope’s visit a special color for her. Her parents came from Ecuador, but she is another daughter of the San Miguel Arcángel parish, near the Marqués de Vadillo metro stop on line 5, the green one.
Nicole has signed up as a volunteer because she understands hospitality as a natural act of family. “When someone comes to your house, you want them to be comfortable; well, since the Pope is coming to my house, which is Madrid, I want to be there for him,” she explains simply. Having been a pilgrim in Lisbon and Rome, she feels it’s time to give back what she received: “They made me feel at home in an unknown country; now I want to do the same.”
For Nicole, being a woman brings a nuance of “sensitivity and welcome” essential for pilgrims arriving in foreign lands. Furthermore, her joy for the “Augustinian Pope” is overflowing: “The Augustinian family is very united and eager to embrace this Pope,” Nicole explains, clarifying that both the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA), to which Robert Prevost belongs, and the Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR), for which she works, have united in Spain to communicate a single Augustinian message.
Her advice for the hot and stressful days in June is not to lose focus: “Focus on changing your perspective, on not looking at the tiredness, but looking at the faces, the laughter, and the community.”
From Atleti, from Usera, and from the Pope
Luis is the eldest of four siblings, studies teaching, and to earn some money, coaches two futsal teams at a religious school near Atocha. He is from Usera “all his life” and, “of course,” an Atleti fan, like his neighbor Rubio, one of the most emblematic strikers of the rojiblanco team in the eighties. But his greatest pride is not having won a Cup in 1985 or having debuted with the Spanish national team, but having met Pope Francis in a private audience in 2023.
“I was able to ask Pope Francis a question: ‘How did you fall in love with Jesus?’ He told me a long story about confession, and I was able to shake his hand; it was unique,” Luis recalls with shining eyes. Now, at 18, he prefers the volunteer’s shirt to the pilgrim’s role. “Giving and dedicating oneself to others is one of the ways one can best reach Jesus; what better way than by serving Him?” he affirms with the maturity of someone who knows that faith is played out in service.
Luis doesn’t yet know exactly what he will do as a volunteer, but he is “waiting” with the same enthusiasm with which he awaits another Champions League final. Just thinking about seeing the Pope in the streets of his city seems “a lot” to him.
“Fried Eggs with Potatoes” for Leo XIV
If we talk about concrete service, we must talk about Francisco Javier Ortiz and Almudena Alfonso. Javier is the cook at the Madrid Seminary; every day he prepares food for 300 people, including Cardinal José Cobo. Almudena is a teacher at a public school in Villaverde. Their story is a testament to how God “fishes” people in the most unexpected moments.
“We are here because we don’t know how to say no to the Lord,” says Almudena. Their definitive entry into the life of the Fuensanta parish came after Javier’s knee operation. “It was at the worst physical moment when we said ‘yes’ to Cursillos de Cristiandad; we entered through the door with crutches and haven’t left since,” they recall with laughter.
This couple now coordinates parish volunteering and pilgrim reception. Although their house is small and their two daughters live with them, they have already made room in the living room. “We can’t offer a room, but we offer a space for a sleeping bag… they are part of my family, part of the Church,” says Javier naturally. And as a cook, he has a dream: “I would love to prepare traditional Spanish food for the Pope… some fried eggs with potatoes or a stew, a fabada or a cocido.”
Expectation Among Non-Believers
Almudena, from her position as a Religion teacher in a public center, notices the curiosity of her colleagues, even non-believers. “They feel anticipation about how we are preparing it and what will happen,” she explains. It is this visibility of faith in the public sphere that she values most about the visit. “It is making visible that we follow someone, that we follow God,” adds Javier.
In the Fuensanta parish, there are already 76 accommodation places and 34 local volunteers ready for action. The community will surely organize adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and some joint prayers, and they even plan to go all together to the Sunday mass in Cibeles with parish t-shirts to show the unity that this Pope insists so much upon.
Although general volunteer registration has closed, Jesús Pascual and the couple Javier and Almudena insist that there is still an open door: host families. “We invite everyone; don’t let space deter you… it’s about sharing with people you don’t know but with whom you share the greatest thing, which is faith,” encourages Almudena.
Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Madrid promises to be a historic milestone, not only for the large logistical deployments-which also exist-but for that “seed” that Fernando Rubio spoke of. It is the joy of a city that, through its 18,000 volunteers, has decided that no one should feel like a stranger in its streets. Because, as Javier says, at the end of the day, the Pope comes for everyone: “He is here, he is going to tell us.”
Source: Own report, interviews with residents of the Usera neighborhood and with volunteers Jesús Pascual, Nicole Aguilar, Fernando Rubio, Luis Hermosel, Almudena Alfonso, and Francisco Javier Ortiz, archival materials from the Archdiocese of Madrid.
