The meeting of the Madrid delegation with Pope Francis I in Rome to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the canonization of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of the capital, has also ended up becoming an attempt by the president of the Community of Madrid to attract the Supreme Pontiff to the region, which he has never visited since his arrival at the Vatican in 2013. A meeting of half an hour that has gone halfway between that purpose, the presentation of Madrid and a conversation of political background.

But the main focus of that meeting headed by the popular leader, accompanied by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida; the Government delegate in Madrid, Mercedes González, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro, have been the option of displacing His Holiness to Spanish territory. "We would like to transmit it to the Archbishopric of Madrid to transmit it on behalf of the Government of the Community of Madrid and the City Council," Ayuso said after the audience in his meeting with the press in St. Peter's Square in the Italian capital.

The last visit of a Pope to Spanish territory occurred in 2011 still with Benedict XVI in office, on his third trip to Spain, to participate in the World Youth Day that was celebrated in the capital. The current Supreme Pontiff, Francis I, has never traveled to our country since he holds the position although in 2022 the option of going to Santiago de Compostela was raised, finally dismissed in the middle of the scandals of sexual abuse of minors in the Church and in a climate of polarization to which the highest ecclesiastical representative has referred on several occasions.

During the meeting, as transmitted by the president of the Community at the exit of the same, Francis I has shown interest in "the neighborhoods" and "the most vulnerable people" of the region and the popular leader has transmitted the need to "pray especially for people with more difficulties" in addition to the "affection and closeness" of the people of Madrid for "whom the figure of the Pope is important".

In addition, there was also time for a conversation with a political background in which the Pontiff conveyed to political representatives the need to show "unity, which is not the same as uniformity, ahead of ideologies." "That is something with which I totally agree, We must govern based on principles and values, but never based on ideologies that make a grid management and do nothing but divide the people," added the regional president.

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He has also asked us to stop talking so much about the past and wars and I can not agree more, "said the regional leader who presented to His Holiness the Community of Madrid as a region "popular and at the service of all". Ayuso also took advantage of the visit to give Francis I a facsimile that collects the miracles of San Isidro Labrador.

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