What to know about Pope Leo’s trip to Spain, from political scandal to Barcelona’s architectural gem

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The weeklong visit to Spain by Pope Leo XIV has brought the pontiff to a once-staunchly Catholic country that has long been in the throes of waning religious practice and, recently, a political crisis for the governing Socialist Party.

Leo is expected to double down on his messages of unity amid polarization, peace as war rages, welcome for migrants and hope for young Spaniards in the era of artificial intelligence.

Around a half-million people came out for an evening prayer vigil in Madrid after Leo arrived on Saturday, recalling the impressive turnout the last time that a pontiff visited Madrid, when Pope Benedict XVI came in 2011 for World Youth Day.

In a sign that the clergy sexual abuse crisis continues to overshadow papal trips, the Vatican confirmed late Friday that Leo would meet with survivors during his visit. The Spanish Catholic hierarchy is belatedly reckoning with decades of abuse and cover-ups in the once-staunchly Catholic country.

Leo’s June 6-12 visit has three distinct chapters, in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, each with its own focus.

But Leo isn’t the only VIP who’ll be paralyzing much of Madrid this weekend. Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny is holding two shows of his 10-concert series in the Spanish capital while the pope is in town.

Madrid, June 6-8

The highlight of Leo’s visit to Madrid will be his speech June 8 to both chambers of the Spanish parliament. Even though St. John Paul II visited Spain five times and Benedict three, no pope has ever addressed Las Cortes Generales, as the parliament is known.

Such speeches are rare and often become one of the most important of a pontificate. The last time a pope addressed a foreign legislature was in 2015, when Pope Francis delivered a speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

Leo will find a legislature that is highly polarized, with the government Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez hammered by a series of corruption scandals and conservative groups such as Vox harshly criticizing the Socialists’ migration policy.

Leo will also meet with the Spanish royals and preside over a prayer vigil for young people that will recall Benedict’s visit to Spain in 2011.

Barcelona, June 9-10

Leo arrives in Barcelona in time to celebrate the June 10 centenary of the death of the great Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí.

Leo will celebrate Mass in Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, and will inaugurate its central spire, the Tower of Jesus Christ, which has made the basilica the world’s tallest church.

While Catalonia’s beloved native son is on the path to possible sainthood, no announcements on his canonization are expected.

Leo will also visit another place of spiritual importance to Catalans, the Our Lady of Montserrat abbey on the sacred mountain outside the city.

Canary Islands, June 11-12

By traveling to the Canary Islands, Leo is fulfilling a wish of Francis to minister to the many migrants who arrive on the Spanish archipelago after risking their lives to reach Europe from Africa.

Leo will spend two days in the Canary Islands, which are closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula, visiting two of the seven islands and meeting with migrants and the humanitarian organizations that provide care for them.

Spain’s Socialist-led government has bucked a general trend in Europe and the U.S. by announcing that it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization. Sánchez has highlighted the benefits of legal migration to Spain’s economy with an aging workforce and a low birth rate.

Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000, but have fallen dramatically, with just over 2,000 people landing there in the first four months of 2026.

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