'My heart is pounding!' - Ecstatic Madrid youths celebrate the Pope's visit

More than half a million youth joined Pope Leo's vigil in central Madrid during his first trip to Spain on Saturday (June 6), bringing together ecstatic faithful all over the country.

"My heart is pounding, honestly. It's amazing, it really happened. You saw it, right next to us," Macarena Vielsa said after the Pope passed by in his popemobile.

Huge gatherings are expected in the coming days for the first visit to Spain by a pope since 2011.

"It is like that sense of freedom and peace that our holiness gives us," said Maria Estela Sanchez, from Colombia.

Leo, who has adopted a more assertive tone against the direction of global leadership in recent months, is scheduled to give more than 20 speeches during his first trip to a European Union country outside Italy, and will be the first pope to address the Spanish parliament.

The first U.S. head of the Catholic Church is expected to draw large crowds on the June 6-12 trip, which also includes stops in Madrid, Montserrat Monastery and the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa.

Leo spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before becoming pope last May, and will speak Spanish throughout most of the trip.

Production: Guillermo Martinez, Leonardo Benassatto, Elena Rodriguez/Reuters