On the first day of his official seven-day tour of Spain, the Pope praises the country's "active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples".

The previously stoic pope is drawing huge crowds and seems to be making a star turn, enthralling the faithful with emotive assurance.

Pope Leo XIV will give an unprecedented address on Monday to the Spanish parliament and is set to meet with victims of sexual abuse by clergy. - 'Commitment to peace' - The US-born pope will give a speech to the Spanish parliament earlier on Monday.

During his first two days in Madrid, Pope Leo XIV has sought to tap into the Catholic instinct of the Spanish people, especially during Sunday’s Corpus Christi Mass.

Shannon Kaplan, a 19-year-old Villanova student from Rye, N.Y., in Westchester County, was walking on campus on Saturday with her boyfriend, who is from San Antonio — home of the Spurs, the Knicks’ opponent in the finals. She said that Pope Leo may be partially to thank for the Knicks’ success.

Pope Leo on Saturday urged global leaders to stop dividing their electorates with "sterile simplifications," calling on them to listen to ​the world's cries for peace as he met migrants and some 600,000 young people at the start of a week-long tour of Spain.