Today, Saturday, Pope Leo
The Pope’s 7-day visit includes stops in Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands. The highlights of the visit include a mass in the famous Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, a speech before the Spanish Parliament, and a visit to migrant shelters in the Canary Islands.
In Madrid, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will receive Pope Leo at the Royal Palace today, Saturday, and will hold a prayer near Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium later that day, and a mass in the city center tomorrow, Sunday.
Pope Leo, whose statements against world leaders have become more harsh in the past few months, is scheduled to deliver more than 20 speeches and will become the first Pope to address the Spanish Parliament.
In Barcelona, he will lead a mass in the Sagrada Familia church next Wednesday, on the centenary of the death of its famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who was known for his religiosity and was called the “Architect of God,” and was granted the title of “Venerable” by the Vatican last year, paving the way for his canonization.
Pope Leo will bless the church’s Jesus Christ Tower, the soaring central portion that was completed last February. The tower increased the cathedral’s height to its maximum, 172.5 meters (566 feet), making the Sagrada Familia the tallest church in the world.
Last year, nearly 5 million people visited the Sagrada Familia, known for its towering towers and symbolically rich modern architecture, making it the most visited paid tourist attraction in Spain.
Immigration
Pope Leo, who angered US President Donald Trump by criticizing his anti-immigration policies, will meet in the last leg of his visit with migrants and organizations dedicated to helping them.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican’s press office, said that the situation experienced by migrants greatly concerns the Pope. “These are human beings, and their stories should touch our hearts,” he added.
In the Canary Islands, the Pope will meet during his visit with migrants who braved the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean to reach Europe.
These islands, which are closer to the African continent than to Spain, have become the main crossing point for irregular migrants to Spain, and this route is considered risky due to the long distances, strong currents in the region, and the rickety boats on which migrants usually travel for days or weeks.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that 1,172 migrants died or went missing along the route in 2025, a figure slightly lower than the 1,215 people in 2024.
But the NGO Caminando Fronteras says more than 3,000 people will die in 2025 while trying to reach the Canary Islands, often on makeshift boats.
In contrast to many major Western powers, especially the United States under Trump, the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez launched a comprehensive amnesty program, allowing some 500,000 migrants to apply for legal status.
Big challenge
The Pope’s visit comes in a very sensitive and polarized political context. While the socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez supports a more open approach to immigration, and has launched comprehensive plans to regularize the status of hundreds of thousands of migrants already residing in Spain, the right-wing opposition, especially the far right, supports a hard-line position.
The far-right Vox party, the third largest political force in the country, summarizes its program as “defending Spain, family and life.”
The “Vox” party criticized the Catholic Church in Spain regarding immigration and religious freedom, accusing it of supporting the “invasion” of foreign immigrants, and criticizing its excessive tolerance towards other religions.
Church spokesman Rafael Rubio said during the Spanish visit: “Pope Leo
As in his previous visits, the Pope, who is 70 years old and was born in the United States, wants this visit to have a strong social dimension, and he will meet prisoners, the homeless, and those who help them.
Victims of sexual assault
The Spanish authorities declared a security alert before the visit, and deployed about 10,500 National Police officers to secure the visit, in addition to 2,190 members of the Civil Guard.
But what is striking is the absence of any meetings with victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy from the Vatican program.
According to a 2023 report by the Spanish National Ombudsman, about 200,000 minors have been subjected to such abuse in Spain since 1940.
The Sanchez government and the Catholic Church in Spain signed an agreement in March to compensate the victims after years of secrecy and ambiguity on the part of the church hierarchy. The program gives the government the final say in disbursing compensation.
Around the world, scandals of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups have rocked Catholic dioceses, damaging the church’s reputation and threatening the popes’ popularity more than three decades after the crisis erupted publicly in the West.
In Spain, some victims have felt reassured, while others remain skeptical, arguing that the period for filing compensation applications is too short, and wondering whether the program will succeed without transparent and enforceable compensation payments.
The program gives victims one year to submit their requests. 420 people have applied so far. This program comes after years of controversy, following the newspaper “El País” revealing the extent of the alleged attacks amid the silence of the church, as well as criticism of the attempt of the church itself to compensate the victims.
For bulls
Before the Pope’s visit, two female activists protested Two bullfighters fought the day before yesterday in the Vatican, but security took them out after they interrupted the Pope’s procession in front of the public.
In a video clip published by PETA, the two activists appeared wearing black T-shirts reading “Bullfighting is a sin,” trying to jump over a barrier in St. Peter’s Square before papal security stopped them and took them away.
The video showed that the motorcade of Pope Leo
PETA issued a statement saying that thousands of bulls are slaughtered annually in Spain in bullfights held in honor of Catholic saints.
The organization added, “During these performances, bulls are stabbed with spears, stuck in the back with sticks, and then stabbed in the lungs while they are exhausted and bleeding. They are often paralyzed but still conscious, and then mutilated before their body is pulled from the ring.”
The organization stressed that bullfighting “completely contradicts Catholic teachings,” noting that the late Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical “Laudato C” in 2015 that “every act of cruelty toward any creature is contrary to human dignity.”
