Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV carries the Eucharist in a monstrance during a Corpus Christi procession from Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran to the Basilica of St. Mary Major June 22, 2025. CNS photo/Lola Gomez
By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
OSV News – The Vatican released the official schedule for Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic visit to Spain, a seven-day trip that will take the pontiff to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands for meetings with Spain’s royal family and political leaders, as well as migrants, prisoners, young people and Catholic communities across the country.
The packed June 6-12 itinerary also included public Masses, a Corpus Christi procession in Madrid, an encounter with volunteers, a visit to Barcelona’s Basilica of the Holy Family, known as Sagrada Família, and stops at migrant reception centers in the Canary Islands.
Coinciding with the Vatican’s release of the Pope’s schedule, the Spanish bishops’ conference hosted a press briefing with the bishops of Madrid, Barcelona, the Canary Islands and Tenerife.
At the briefing, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, said the papal visit comes at a moment when Pope Leo has emerged as a “reference point in the current situation of the world.”
“For this reason, his words – undoubtedly words of dialogue, encounter, communion and peace – will help all of us,” Archbishop Argüello said.
–Madrid–
According to the official schedule, upon his arrival June 6, the Pope will meet with Spanish King Felipe VI and his wife, Queen Letizia, followed by meetings with government authorities and the country’s diplomatic corps.
Noting the country’s climate of political and social tensions, Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid said the Pope’s meetings with political and government leaders during his stop in the Spanish capital were highly anticipated.
“There was a hunger for a visit of this kind at a special moment in our political, social and economic life, because there is also a hunger for reference points, and I believe the Pope can be a reference point to give light and direction to many who are searching,” Cardinal Cobo said.
In the evening, the Pope will visit an emergency homeless shelter operated by Caritas Madrid, before a meeting with young people at the Plaza de Lima, where St. John Paul II celebrated Mass during his 1982 visit to the country.
Cardinal Cobo said the meeting will serve as a “platform” for the Pope to “speak with the youth of the entire world.”
The following day, the Pope will celebrate Mass on the feast of Corpus Christi at Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles, a celebration Cardinal Cobo confirmed would include a procession reflecting the city’s local traditions.
“The Corpus Christi procession will be beautiful,” he said. “A great many people are involved: those preparing floral carpets, those carrying the platforms, numerous associations. It will not be excessively long for reasons of time and space because we are expecting an enormous crowd.”
After the Mass, the Pope will meet privately with members of the Augustinian order, followed by a meeting at Movistar Arena with representatives of the “world of culture, art, economy and sport,” the Vatican said.
On his final day in Madrid June 8, Pope Leo will meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, followed by a highly anticipated address to members of the Spanish Parliament.
When asked if he was concerned that the Pope’s address to parliamentarians “could be politically or ideologically manipulated,” Archbishop Argüello said that “while it can always happen,” it was important to note that the decision to invite the Pope to speak was “unanimous.”
“Over the years, Popes have spoken in academic and political institutions throughout the world. Any later interpretations are beyond our control,” he said.
Adding that the Pope would prepare “the speeches as he sees fit,” Archbishop Argüello told journalists that the Church was awaiting “a possible new encyclical that seems likely to emphasize the centrality of the human person, human dignity, the common good, dialogue and encounter.”
The president of the Spanish bishops’ conference did not indicate if the encyclical would be released before the visit.
–Barcelona–
Pope Leo will depart for Barcelona June 9 where he will preside over midday prayer at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia and in the evening will take part in a prayer vigil at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium.
For Cardinal Juan José Omella of Barcelona, there is “enormous expectation” for the pontiff’s visit and that Pope Leo’s “words and gestures are reaching people very deeply.
“The classical thinkers said that God has three attributes: ‘bonum, verum et pulchrum’ (the good, the true and the beautiful),” the cardinal said. “I believe that in some way we are expressing this through the Pope’s visit – the communion of a diverse Church. And we see it every day: diverse, yet united around the universal shepherd, who is the Pope. I think this unity will become visible.”
Pope Leo will begin his first full day in Barcelona with a visit to the Brians 1 Penitentiary Center, followed by a visit to the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, where he will pray the rosary and have lunch with the Benedictine community.
Cardinal Omella said the penitentiary represented “the world of sorrow, the deprivation of freedom and everything connected to prison ministry, which is something very present in the life of the Church,” and that the Pope “wants to make himself present there.”
Additionally, the abbey, he continued, represented all the monasteries in Spain and “the world of contemplatives, which is the praying Church.”
The cardinal also said anticipation was high for the Pope’s evening Mass June 10 at one of the world’s most iconic Churches, the Sagrada Família, where he will inaugurate the tower of Jesus Christ. At more than 564 feet tall, the tower makes the basilica the tallest Catholic Church in the world.
The Pope’s visit to the basilica coincides with the 100th anniversary of the death of the basilica’s architect, Antoni Gaudí. While there were hopes for a beatification ceremony at the Mass, the official schedule did not include it.
Cardinal Omella told journalists that a miracle attributed to Gaudí’s intercession was being studied and “in a very advanced phase in Rome, but there is nothing further yet.”
–Canary Islands–
On June 11, Pope Leo will depart for the Canary Islands, a trip that his predecessor, Pope Francis, had wanted to make.
The archipelago, geographically located in Africa, is the destination every year for thousands of sub-Saharan migrants seeking a better future. They arrive in precarious and fragile boats called “cayucos,” and many die on the way.
According to the schedule, the Pope will meet with organizations working with migrants at the port of Arguineguín, followed by a meeting with bishops, clergy and religious men and women at the Cathedral of St. Anne. In the evening, he will celebrate Mass at the Gran Canaria Stadium.
Noting the rarity of a pontiff visiting the islands, which are geographically distant from mainland Spain, Bishop José Mazuelos Pérez of the Canary Islands said the Pope’s visit was “a blessing from God.”
“People are absolutely delighted,” the bishop said. “I especially want to emphasize the joy and excitement. For example, I go to the market to buy something and people immediately come up to me saying, ‘The Pope is coming, the Pope is coming!’
Noting that the Pope’s visit will place “greater emphasis on the reality of migration,” Bishop Mazuelos also noted anticipation for the Pope’s meeting with clergy and religious “who are working tirelessly and who are eager to embark upon new paths of evangelization.”
“There is a strong secularization in the Canary Islands. There are many people who have left the Church,” he said. “But there are also many people who have deep needs and a thirst for encountering the Gospel and the Lord. And the Pope comes to strengthen us, encourage us and help us continue fighting – never giving up, but rather winning hearts through the proclamation of the Gospel.”
On the Pope’s final day in Spain June 12, he will depart for Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, where he will meet with migrants living at the “Las Raices Center” followed by a meeting with organizations helping to integrate migrants.
Bishop Eloy Alberto Santiago of Tenerife told journalists that at one point, the center had housed 4,000 migrants who came “from the deadly Atlantic route as well as from Latin America.”
Before departing for Rome, Pope Leo will also preside over an outdoor Mass at the port of Santa Cruz, which the bishop noted was “the ideal place because of its closeness to the sea, where so many people arrive.”
“This closeness to the sea also allows us to enter into communion and harmony with the migratory reality and with the ecclesial reality,” he said.
Bishop Santiago noted that while the Pope will visit the island for “five or six very intense hours,” he was joyful that his diocese will be the final place Pope Leo will visit.
“Our Diocese of Tenerife is a diocese that welcomes many migrants, and in this case, it will also warmly bid farewell to the Holy Father after his first visit to Spain,” he said.
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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