Pope Leo XIV says “The poor cannot be neglected if we are to remain within the...Church’s life that has its source in the Gospel..." at Caritas Center in Spain FULL TEXT

On the first day of his Apostolic Journey to Spain on Saturday, 6 June 2026, Pope Leo XIV spent time with staff, volunteers and beneficiaries of a Caritas-run center that assists people experiencing homelessness and other situations of vulnerability. The CEDIA 24 Horas social project in Madrid’s Lucero district is open 24 hours a day for those in need of a place to sleep, of social guidance, psychological support and basic services. Arriving at the centre after having spent time with a group of some 40 people affected by disability and illness, the Pope was welcomed by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano and by the director of CEDIA, who showed him around the premises and introduced him to the staff.  After listening to their words of welcome, the Pope listened to the testimonies of Niurka, a woman from Cuba, of Khadri, a man from Senegal, who found support and a future at CEDIA and of Alicia, a volunteer representing the many people who sustain the Church's social outreach. Each of them presented him with a symbolic gift.
FULL TEXT Address of Pope Leo XIV
Information and Reception Center (Madrid)
Saturday, June 6, 2026
_______________________________
Your Eminence, [Your Excellencies],
dear brothers and sisters:

I am truly delighted to begin my visit to Madrid here. As His Eminence has said, whoever is in Madrid is from Madrid. And so I too am among you as just another Madrileño: thank you, Madrid, for this welcome. A welcome that makes me feel part of a large and wonderful family where, as in all families, miracles of love happen. Especially in this house, where no one is left alone.

Here, the joy and sorrow of each person are the joy and sorrow of all, and by listening to one another, we face challenges together, without ignoring the complexity of situations and, at the same time, without neglecting the demands of charity and justice, “in dialogue with all who are seriously concerned about humanity and its world” ( Deus caritas est , 27). Thus, CEDIA walks the path of the Gospel, following in the footsteps of Jesus, the Son of God who became man not only to heal our illnesses and miseries, but to make them his own—except for sin—living as one of us in weakness and identifying with every person who suffers, to the point of telling us: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” ( Mt 25:40).

In this sense, we can interpret the words we just heard in the song: "In every dream I sought you, and none were in vain." They perfectly summarize the testimonies we have heard and the work carried out here every day.

Indeed, thanks to a dream and a small open door —small in size, but immense in mercy, as His Eminence has said—, Niurka has given Ares and Athena life, her motherly love, the grace of Baptism and the promise of a happy future.

Thanks to a dream and that same small door, Khadri has crossed the dark tunnel of the pandemic and a journey full of unknowns. With the help of those who lent him a hand, showing him that they appreciated him and believed in him, he has found a job and, above all, has regained the desire not only to move forward, but also to support others, just as others have supported him.

Thanks also to a dream and that same small door, every day Alicia and the other volunteers of Project Hope help so many women to recover their dignity, autonomy, hope and respect for the sacred value of their person, and to start a new life.

The symbols you have given me are also a message for everyone: the ribbon with the children's names expresses the joy that each birth brings to the world; the residence permit tells a story of effort, but above all of commitment, honesty and welcome; the sandals, which recall Moses' encounter with God on Horeb (cf. Ex 3:1-6), evoke the "holy ground" that we are bound to respect in every human life.

That is why I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for having shared painful experiences, but above all experiences full of light, which reflect, like mirrors, the charity of God.

Your testimonies open a window onto a vast panorama, populated by countless mothers like Niurka, children, women and men, volunteers: so many people, so many brothers and sisters, so many stories, so numerous that, as Saint John says, “If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world could not contain the books that would be written” ( Jn 21:25). And the comparison with the Gospel is not forced, because in these stories continue the “things Jesus did” ( ibid .) to whom the Evangelist refers.

In his address, the Archbishop evoked the path from Bethlehem to Paradise. Madrid is also famous for the nativity scenes that adorn it during the Christmas season. Their beauty, however, is only a pale expression of an even greater and more profound wonder, which we find here today. The lights, voices, and sounds that touch our hearts and bring tears to our eyes during the Christmas holidays are, in reality, within us, with us, and among us throughout the year, and today they are more alive and vibrant than ever in these spaces, around this simple and welcoming nativity scene that, with God's help, you continue to prepare day after day—indeed, literally day and night—for Jesus, present in the people who come to the Center seeking help.

The motto for this visit has been chosen from the words of Jesus to his disciples: "Lift up your eyes" ( Jn 4:35).

They are an invitation to contemplate the fields ripe for harvest, and they remind us that charity brooks no delay. If the wheat is not harvested when it is ripe, the harvest is lost, and this is our responsibility toward those in need: a responsibility that consecrates each encounter with another as a kairos , a unique and unrepeatable moment of grace for loving, which must not be lost or postponed. The love of Christ impels us toward our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5:14), and the charity and concern with which we respond to his promptings are the proof of our faith.

If we think about it carefully, in reality, “Christians too, on many occasions, allow themselves to be influenced by attitudes marked by worldly ideologies or by political and economic positions that lead to unfair generalizations and misleading conclusions. The fact that the exercise of charity is despised or ridiculed, as if it were the fixation of some and not the incandescent core of the Church’s mission, makes me think that it is always necessary to reread the Gospel, so as not to run the risk of replacing it with a worldly mentality. “The poor cannot be neglected if we are to remain within the great current of the Church’s life that has its source in the Gospel and bears fruit in every time and place ( Dilexi te , 15)."

Jesus' words are also an invitation to cultivate a heart sensitive to the needs of others (cf. Ps 112:1-9), keeping alive within us the desire for good that God has placed in our humanity and which faith liberates and strengthens. Pope Francis said in this regard: “Faced with the mystery of personal life and the challenges of society, the believer rejoices, has a passion, a dream to cultivate, an interest that impels him to commit himself personally” ( Homily, Marseille, September 23, 2023 ), and he warned against the danger of a “bored, cold heart, comfortable with a tranquil life, which shields itself with indifference and becomes impermeable, which hardens” ( ibid .). A living heart is warm and pulsating, and it gives life. A cold heart is immobile, no longer pumping blood, and it brings about the death of the person.

But I would like to emphasize one last aspect of the Lord's invitation: indeed, it is also a call to look those who suffer in the eye and to make helping, above all, an encounter of brothers and sisters united in the one embrace of the Father. Pope Francis also insisted on this point. He asked: “When you give alms, do you look into the eyes of the beggar? Do you touch his hand to feel his flesh?” ( Angelus, October 27, 2024 ) and concluded: “Almsgiving is not charity. The one who receives the most grace from almsgiving is the one who gives it, because he allows himself to be seen by the eyes of the Lord” ( ibid .). Those who truly love “do not limit themselves to giving something; they listen, they dialogue, they try to understand the situation and its causes […]. They are attentive to material and also spiritual needs, to the integral development of the person” ( Message for the Seventh World Day of the Poor, June 13, 2023 , 5).

And we could conclude by looking to Mary, in whose charity all this finds its fulfillment: in her solicitous love at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-11), her yearning to follow in the footsteps of her Son (cf. Lk 2:41-49; 8:19-21), her closeness and participation to the very end at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27). To her I entrust each one of you and your work, in this land consecrated to her, hoping that the spirit of her universal motherhood may ever more inspire the cry of faith. To her let us say: “Teach us to always see you as Mother, fountain of mercy, lap of forgiveness, embrace of hope, gate of Glory” ( Prayer of Saint John Paul II to Our Lady of Almudena, June 15, 1993 ).

Thank you.

Okay, before we give the blessing, let's say the prayer that Jesus Christ taught us.

Our Father

Apostolic Blessing

Congratulations to all, thank you so much for this testimony of love.