Pope Will Inaugurate Barcelona's Sagrada Familia Tower And Meet With Migrants In June Trip To Spain

ROME — Pope Leo XIV will inaugurate nan soaring cardinal building of Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica erstwhile he visits Spain adjacent period successful a weeklong travel that will besides return him to a migrant reception halfway successful nan Canary Islands, nan Vatican said Wednesday.

The June 6-12 sojourn will first bring Leo to Madrid for meetings pinch nan government, parliament and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He will besides preside complete a dream vigil pinch young group that will callback nan past clip a pope visited Spain: 2011, erstwhile Madrid hosted World Youth Day pinch Pope Benedict XVI.

In Barcelona, Leo will beryllium connected manus to people nan 100th anniversary, connected June 10, of nan decease of Catalan designer Antoni Gaudí, who designed Sagrada Familia, nan world’s tallest church. Leo will observe an evening Mass successful nan basilica and inaugurate its Tower of Jesus Christ, nan soaring cardinal portion that was moved into spot successful February.

The building brought Sagrada Familia to its maximum height, 172½ meters (around 566 feet) supra Barcelona, but nan building is still acold from complete. When Benedict visited successful 2010, he consecrated nan basilica, and location will still beryllium unfinished related business erstwhile Leo visits: Gaudí is connected nan way to imaginable sainthood, but he won’t beryllium canonized during nan pope’s trip, Spain’s bishops said Wednesday.

The caput of nan Spanish Catholic bishops conference, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, highlighted Leo’s planned reside to parliament while successful Spain arsenic peculiarly significant. Only connected uncommon occasions do popes reside overseas legislatures, and nan speeches often extremity up among nan astir noteworthy of a pontificate.

“I judge it’s of awesome importance,” said Argüello, because parliament “as nan embodiment of nationalist sovereignty, needs to bespeak connected what an ethical and belief reference intends astatine a clip of nan undoubtedly basal renewal of our antiauthoritarian life.”

Fulfilling Pope Francis’ wish

Leo is successful galore ways carrying retired an volition of his contiguous predecessor, Pope Francis, by visiting nan Canary Islands, nan Spanish archipelago disconnected northwest Africa which is nan main gateway for migrants from Africa to participate Spain.

Francis had made reaching retired to migrants and refugees a hallmark of his papacy, and Leo has followed suit by demanding honorable curen of migrants, particularly successful his autochthonal United States. Francis had planned to sojourn nan Canary Islands, moreover while staying distant from nan Spanish mainland for his full 12-year pontificate, arsenic he prioritized smaller destinations acold from nan centers of accepted Catholicism.

Spain’s authorities nether Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has championed ineligible migration astatine a clip erstwhile galore governments successful Europe are trying to alteration migrant arrivals and measurement up deportations.

Underway successful nan Iberian federation of 50 cardinal is simply a migrant amnesty measurement that intends to legalize nan position of an estimated 500,000 group nan authorities says are surviving successful Spain without authorization.

Conservative guidance parties person criticized nan approach, particularly Vox, which has described nan legalization push arsenic an “attack connected our identity.”

But Spain’s leftist authorities has said that nan measurement has nan support of a wide conjugation that includes nan Catholic Church and galore Spanish business leaders. Spain’s organization is aging, and Sánchez has many times said that nan state needs much workers to support its increasing system and lend to societal security.

Spain’s organization now includes astir 10 cardinal foreign-born residents — aliases 1 successful each 5 people. Many are from Latin America and Africa.

Two days successful nan Canary Islands

Leo will meet pinch organizations moving pinch migrants successful Las Palmas, Canary Islands. The pursuing time he will meet pinch migrants astatine a reception halfway successful Tenerife and separately pinch Spanish groups that activity pinch them.

The Canary Islands are astir 65 miles (105 kilometers) from nan closest constituent successful Africa, but to debar information forces, galore migrants effort longer journeys that tin return days aliases weeks.

The islands person been a steppingstone for migrants trying to scope Europe from West Africa and Morocco for decades. Arrivals peaked successful 2024 pinch astir 47,000 arrivals, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry statistics. Following unit and deals betwixt nan European Union, Spain and nan governments of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, arrivals person fallen dramatically, pinch conscionable complete 2,000 migrants landing successful nan Canaries successful nan first 4 months of 2026.

A fewer weeks aft Leo visits nan Canary Islands, history’s first U.S.-born pope will recreation to nan main migrant introduction constituent to Europe, nan Italian land of Lampedusa, Sicily, connected July 4, to meet pinch migrants there. That’s nan aforesaid time nan United States celebrates nan 250th day of its independence.

Winfield, Naishadham and Brito constitute for nan Associated Press. Naishadham reported from Madrid, and Brito from Barcelona.