June 10, 2026

Pope Leo XIV moves on to second leg of trip to Spain

WORLD
Courtney Mares & Junno Arocho Esteves OSV News

BARCELONA, Spain (OSV News) — Nearly 100 years after the death of “God’s architect” Antoni Gaudí, Pope Leo XIV arrived in Barcelona on June 9 for a two-day visit to the Catalan capital that will culminate in the inauguration of the crowning tower of his unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Família, or Basilica of the Holy Family.

The papal plane, a chartered Iberia aircraft, touched down at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat International Airport at 12:45 p.m. local time, June 9, after a less than one-hour flight from Madrid, escorted by fighter jets.

In his first public appearance at Barcelona’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia, the pope made an immediate impression on locals by offering a prayer to the Virgin Mary in Catalan, the regional language. He invoked: “Santa Maria de la Mercè, pregueu per nosaltres,” meaning “Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us.”

The city’s Gothic cathedral was first dedicated in 877 to St. Eulalia, the city’s patron saint, who suffered martyrdom in Barcelona under the Roman Empire in the 4th-century.

Invoking St. Eulalia, the pope called on Catholics to be “witnesses and prophets of unity, of welcome, of harmony and of peace, even at the cost of sacrifice and renunciation” in a world he described as “torn apart by wars and divisions” and a society that is “increasingly fragmented and individualistic.”

“Like the virgin Eulalia and so many other martyrs, we wish to say our ‘yes,’ ready if necessary to die to ourselves, to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves again, to renounce the superfluous in order to build upon what is essential and lasts forever,” he said.

“This is what the crucified One teaches us; this is what the Apostle Paul and the examples of the saints invite us to do.”

After midday prayer at the cathedral, Pope Leo met privately with the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the institutional system that politically organizes the self-government of Catalonia, before meeting with the members of the Augustinian order.

Then last evening the pope presided over a prayer vigil at Barcelona’s Lluís Company’s Olympic Stadium, where he responded to questions from local youth.

Cardinal Juan José Omella of Barcelona has said that there is “enormous expectation” for Pope Leo’s visit and that the pope’s “words and gestures are reaching people very deeply.”

Pope Leo began his second day, June 10 in Barcelona, speaking to inmates and prison ministry volunteers at the Brians 1 Penitentiary June 10, the pope reminded them that when faced with the temptation “to feel inferior and think it is not worth going on,” prisoners should lift up their eyes to God, who, “through the presence of so many people, never ceases to show you his love and closeness.

“Even if anxiety and sadness mark certain moments of your journey, remember that life’s mistakes do not define a person’s identity,” he said.

Accompanied by Bishop Xabier Gómez of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, the pope was welcomed with applause and song and greeted several people as he made his way to the main stage. Father Jesús Bel, the prison chaplain, said the Brians 1 penitentiary houses 1,100 men and 150 women, and serves as a pretrial detention center. A second facility under the chaplain’s care, Brians 2, houses only male inmates, he noted.

Welcoming Pope Leo to the prison, Father Bel spoke about the religious care offered to inmates at the Brians 1 and 2 facilities, including weekly Mass, preparation for receiving the Sacraments and Bible study.

Pope Leo’s visit to the prison, he said, “comforts and encourages us.”

“Thank you for looking at us with eyes of mercy and for telling the world that we exist, that we suffer, that we want to lift ourselves up and move forward,” Father Bel said. “We want to unite ourselves strongly to the Lord and fill ourselves with His presence because we know that He is the only path to true freedom.”

Thanking Father Bel and the inmates for their testimony, Pope Leo said he was “deeply moved” and that “every human being is worthy by the mere fact of having been willed, created and loved by God.”

“It is a consoling truth that accompanies us at all times and reminds us how his merciful love always outweighs whatever good or evil we may have done,” the pope said.

Recalling St. Augustine’s spiritual biography, “Confessions,” the pope told the inmates that by trusting in God’s divine grace and allowing “ourselves to be guided and transformed by it,” they can discover that “the past does not condemn the future.”

“Let us make room for the Lord in our hearts and seek his face,” he said. “Let us allow his love to guide us. Let us cling to him, who continually invites us to hope and shows us a wonderful horizon that no physical barrier can prevent us from reaching.”

God, he added, “continues to speak to us in the depths of our consciences, helping us discover that he dwells among us. He is only waiting for us to give him a chance.”

From there Pope Leo XIV continued a very busy day, making a pilgrimage to the medieval mountain monastery of Montserrat, entrusting his pontificate and the Church’s mission to Our Lady of Montserrat, the beloved Black Madonna known to Catalans as “La Moreneta.”

“I am pleased to be able to come to the feet of Our Lady of Montserrat to entrust to her, with full confidence in her maternal intercession, my Petrine ministry and the Church’s mission in a world that cries out for justice and peace,” the pope said after making the steep and winding ascent up to the Marian shrine perched more than 2,200 feet above sea level and roughly 30 miles northwest of Barcelona.

Pope Leo revealed a personal connection to the Marian devotion, telling those gathered inside the basilica in Catalan that his parish in Peru was named for Our Lady of Montserrat.

“I hold a fond memory of my years as parish priest of the Parish of Santa María de Montserrat in Trujillo, Peru,” the pope said. 

“La Moreneta has always accompanied me. Thank you, Catalonia, for your faith.”

Bells rang out from the abbey as the pope arrived, greeting the faithful from a golf cart before kissing the cross at the entrance of the Montserrat basilica and sprinkling pilgrims with holy water. He was welcomed by Abbot Manel Gasch i Hurios of the Benedictine community that has guarded the sanctuary since the monastery’s founding in 1025.

The pope led pilgrims in the prayer of the rosary and sang the “Salve Regina” together with the faithful. He also spent time in private prayer before the 12th-century Romanesque wooden image of the Virgin of Montserrat, venerated for centuries as the patroness of Catalonia, a title formally recognized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881.

The boy choristers of the Escolanía de Montserrat, Europe’s oldest choir school dating to the 13th century, accompanied the pope’s prayer at Montserrat, as approximately 50 singers between the ages of 9 and 14 lifted their voices in the sanctuary where, the pope said, “heavenly voices” have echoed through the centuries.

In his address, the pope pointed out the shrine’s connection to St. Ignatius of Loyola, who spent a night in prayer before the Virgin at Montserrat before entering the priesthood, a significant turning point for the man who would go on to become the founder of the Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus. 

“She moves us to deep conversion, as she did Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who in this evocative place, after a night spent in prayer before the Virgin, laid aside his knightly arms — a moment that marked the beginning of a new life in the service of Jesus Christ,” Pope Leo said.

Pope Leo noted that Our Lady of Montserrat holds the globe in her right hand, a sign of her universal maternal care, calling on the faithful to set aside whatever hardens their hearts.

“Let us lay at her feet today the armor that has gradually hardened our hearts,” he said, urging those gathered to “recognize one another as brothers and sisters, so that no one is excluded and that communion is stronger than every division.”

Appealing for peace, the pope asked Mary to teach the faithful to “renounce hurtful words, hasty judgment, gossip and slander,” and to nurture love in families, workplaces, on social media, and in political debate.

Abbot Gasch i Hurios pointed out that a Benedictine of Monserrat was the first to offer Mass in the New World on Jan. 6, 1494 after accompanying Christopher Columbus on his second voyage. 

The monastery’s history is not without suffering. In 1811, Napoleonic troops sacked and partially destroyed the complex. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), 23 monks were killed and the community was forced into exile. Upon their return in 1939, Montserrat once again became a spiritual center for the Catalan people.

Beyond being the patron saint of Catalonia, the Virgin of Montserrat “is one to whom we all direct our prayers. She is a symbol of Catalan identity and spirituality,” Mercè Alonso Juan-Muns, who works for Barcelona’s archdiocesan magazine, “Catalunya Cristiana,” told OSV News. 

“Here, we Catalans — and all the faithful who wish to do so — come to offer up our sufferings, our pilgrimages, and our devotions, especially in May, the Marian month, or even to ask her to help Barça win!” she said, mentioning the flagship FC Barcelona soccer club.

For Alonso, the pope’s visit to Montserrat was “an exceptional gesture of closeness to the Catalans.” 

“Just as the Sagrada Familia has a more international impact, belonging to the whole world, Montserrat, being more remote and less well-known, is as if Pope Leo had come into the kitchen of our home — that is, the most intimate place,” she said.

Thousands of pilgrims gathered outside of the Benedictine abbey from which Pope Leo greeted the crowds from a balcony. A group of school children waving flags were among the first to welcome the pope to the inner courtyard of the basilica with enthusiastic cheers.

Six-year-old Alex, and seven-year-old Pau, personally greeted Pope Leo inside the basilica, saying “Hola!” as the pope approached them and waved. 

“Thank you for this beautiful manifestation of faith, all united as one single family, with this welcome from our mother Mary, the Virgin of Montserrat, (for) the joy, enthusiasm, and deep sense of faith that we are experiencing these days,” Pope Leo told the crowds gathered outside from the balcony of the basilica. 

“Thank you to Catalonia for having received so many people from other countries, because it teaches how to integrate everyone into a single family,” the pope added. “Thank you to the community of faith, to the community of our brothers, the monks who receive and welcome all the pilgrims who come to pray to Mary, Our Lady,” he said.

Barcelona is the second leg of Pope Leo’s June 6-12 apostolic journey to Spain, which began in the Spanish capital of Madrid and will conclude in the Canary Islands. The pope’s second day in Barcelona will culminate with a papal Mass inside the Sagrada Família on the centenary of the death of architect Antoni Gaudí, after which Pope Leo XIV is to inaugurate the recently completed Tower of Jesus, which made the iconic Barcelona basilica the tallest Catholic church in the world.

 

Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.