Spain Pope
Pope Leo XIV looks at the cheering crowd upon arriving to attend a midday prayer at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
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Pope Leo XIV is honoring two of Barcelona’s most sacred monuments. On Wednesday he is celebrating a noontime prayer at a mountain-top abbey and an evening Mass at the famed Sagrada Familia Basilica. Wednesday marks the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the architect who designed the Sagrada Familia. Leo is in Spain on a weeklong visit. His reception has highlighted how Spain still has plenty of faithful Catholics after the country of 50 million experienced a religious crisis following its 20th-century dictatorship. Onlookers have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope.