Madrid.- Pope Leo XIV blessed the Tower of Jesus at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the tallest church in the world, in a spectacular celebration that highlighted the temple as a sign of unity and harmony before the King and Queen and the Prime Minister of Spain.
The pontiff defended peace and hospitality in the homily he delivered at the mass he celebrated in the Basilica, and previously visited Montserrat, the abbey among the mountains that is a symbol of the Catalonia region, where Barcelona is located.
Pope Leo XIV blessed, sprinkling holy water with the aspergillum and using both Catalan and Spanish, the Tower of Jesus, the largest of the Sagrada Familia and which, at 172.5 meters tall, is the tallest religious building in the world, one of the most anticipated moments of the pontiff’s visit to Catalonia.
Pope Leo XIV praised the Basilica as “a sign of unity and concord,” during the homily he delivered at the temple in a mass attended by the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe and Letizia, and the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, among other authorities.
“It is a temple that constitutes us as a family loved by the Lord, nourished by his own life in the Eucharist. This is how the City of Counts and all of Catalonia gather in this temple, also a sign of unity and harmony,” said the pontiff regarding the work of the architect Antoni Gaudí.
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He also proclaimed that “one cannot believe in Jesus and promote war and kill innocents” or “abandon those who flee“.
The Sagrada Familia is one of the most iconic and visited monuments in Barcelona and all of Spain. The ceremony had a spectacular finale, with lights, a choir, and a group of drones that formed the image of Gaudí over the Barcelona sky.
Before the mass, Valentina, a 13-year-old blind girl, explained to Pope Leo XIV the features of the Tower of Jesus—which makes it the tallest church in the world—and the cross that crowns it while she felt a model of the structure with her hands.
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Previously, Leo XIV flew by helicopter to Montserrat, an abbey among mountains that is a symbol of Catalan identity, where the Virgin of Montserrat is venerated, a 12th-century Romanesque black carving who is the patron saint of Catalonia, popularly known as the Moreneta.
There, the Pope entrusted himself to the image, which “always” accompanies him, he said, and asked to cultivate love in political debates and on social media.
“I am happy to be able to come to the feet of the Moreneta to entrust to her, full of confidence in her maternal intercession, my Petrine service and the mission of the Church in the world that cries out for justice and peace,” stated Leo XIV in Catalan, in his speech after the recitation of the rosary.
Robert Prevost had already visited this symbolic mountain in 2013 and today he returned to greet the patron saint of Catalonia once again, now as pope.
First pope to visit a Spanish prison
Leo XIV became the first pope to visit a Spanish penitentiary center by meeting with inmates of the Brians 1 prison, the largest in the Catalonia region, to whom he brought a message of hope.
“Although overwhelm and sadness may mark some moments of your journey, remember that the mistakes of life do not determine a person’s identity,” the Pope told them in his speech before nearly 80 inmates from the Brians 1, Brians 2, and Wad Ras centers.
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In the Brians 1 assembly hall, the pontiff listened to the testimonies of Montse and Josefina, two inmates who recounted how they regained their faith in prison.
After listening to their testimonies, Leo XIV embraced the two inmates and highlighted that the gaze of God “is a consoling truth that accompanies us at all times and reminds us how His merciful love is always above whatever good or evil we may have done.”
A Peruvian child’s questions for the Pope
Leo XIV ‘confessed’ to a Peruvian boy, Renzo, who put him through a real interrogation with personal questions that he did not hesitate to answer, even to talk about soccer on the eve of the World Cup: “Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off alone, but a path that we learn to travel together,” the Pope stated.
The American pontiff also shared, during his meeting at the Church of Saint Augustine in the El Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, that he usually plays tennis and that when he was young he played American football, “a bit more violent.”
During his time in Trujillo, in Peru, he played soccer with the seminarians: “As a defender, if you want to know, I wasn’t a great goalscorer,” he detailed with a laugh.
Then, Renzo read him his letter: “Do you like soccer? Have you ever wanted to be pope? Why does the pope work so much?”, he asked in the writing, after which Robert Prevost confessed his passion for tennis and how during his years as a bishop in Peru he liked to follow the local soccer teams.
