Pope Leo XIV is travelling to Spain on Saturday for a visit centred on immigration and social justice at a politically tumultuous time for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The visit begins with a reception at the Madrid royal house by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
A prayer vigil will be held later in the day near Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which is expected to draw 400,000 people.
A million people are due to attend a Mass in the city centre on Sunday.
So This Happened (EP 402) reviews: Banks make N209bn from maintenance charges0:00 / 1:01
During his seven-day tour, Leo will address the Spanish parliament and dedicate the new tower of the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona – currently the world’s highest church.
The Vatican said he will also see some victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
In a 2023 study, Spain’s official ombudsman estimated that some 200,000 youngsters had been victims of such abuse in Spain since 1940.
After years of reluctance and secrecy by the Church leadership, Sanchez’s government and the Catholic Church in Spain reached an agreement in March to compensate victims.
On Thursday and Friday, Leo will meet migrants and charities assisting them in the Canary Islands. He will be accompanied by Sanchez to pay tribute to thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe.
Irregular migrants arrive in Spain after lengthy and perilous journeys from Africa, with the Canaries – Spanish islands off the coast of West Africa – the main entry site.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said 1,172 migrants perished or went missing on the route in 2025 — just a little less than the 1,215 persons in 2024.
Under Sanchez, Spain has a comparatively liberal immigration policy, compared to many of its European partners.
Sanchez has also been criticised by his critics for a number of corruption issues in his inner circle.
His wife, brother, former top Socialist officials and former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are involved in separate lawsuits.
The scandals have been an embarrassment for Sanchez, who came to office in 2018 promising to clean up Spanish politics after the Popular Party was involved in its own corruption problem.
Sanchez has dismissed calls from the opposition to step down, saying his minority coalition will serve out its term until the next scheduled election in 2027.
Leo XIV “is arriving in a polarised country where different players could try to take advantage of the visit,” said Rafael Rubio, spokesman for the Church for the Spanish visit.
One of the big challenges is making sure that his message is reaching everybody and talking to everybody,” he said.
Some 15,000 personnel of the national police and the Guardia Civil along with municipal police units are being mobilised for the visit.
There are also more than 4,000 accredited journalists from 80 nationalities.
This is the first journey by the US-born pope to an EU country other than Italy and the first state visit by a pope to Spain since Benedict XVI in 2010.
Leo’s predecessor, Francis, completely ignored many of Europe’s traditional strongholds of Catholicism, which, like Spain, have seen a sharp decline in religious observance.
AFP