Pope gets 10 minute standing ovation after speech to Spain’s parliament

Leo hits all the right notes. This is from CatholicVote.

Pope Leo XIV received a nearly 10-minute standing ovation from members of Spain’s Parliament June 8 after he gave a sweeping address that praised key elements of Spain’s heritage and advocated for legislation to be rooted in the protection of human dignity from conception until natural death. Defense of human life, he stressed, is not a partisan issue but rather “a goal of civilization.”

Speaking at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, Pope Leo said that “beyond the legitimate diversity of positions, every legislative task ultimately confronts a decisive question: what conception of the human person inspires laws, and what kind of society do those laws build?” 

“In this regard, Spain has a particularly rich heritage,” he continued, saying its geographical and political identity is connected to a history rich with faith, reason, art, and law. 

He also emphasized the importance of legislation serving the dignity of the human person, who is made for God. 

“Spain has known how to view the human being as more than just a cog in the social, economic or political order,” he said. “It has recognized the human being as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom, and driven by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can quench — in a word, as someone whose dignity takes precedence over all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject.”

The Pope also underscored the importance of safeguarding fundamental human rights even if it is not popular in a majority.

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Pope Francis warned against “throwaway culture,” which threatens society, he continued. 

“If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?” he said. “Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?

“The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization. Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person. For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile.”