ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will inaugurate the soaring central tower of Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica when he visits Spain next month in a weeklong trip that will also take him to a migrant reception center in the Canary Islands, the Vatican said Wednesday.
The June 6-12 visit will first bring Leo to Madrid for meetings with the government, Parliament and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He’ll also preside over a prayer vigil with young people that will recall the last time a pope visited Spain: 2011, when Madrid hosted World Youth Day with Pope Benedict XVI.
In Barcelona, Leo will be on hand to mark the 100th anniversary, on June 10, of the death of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed Sagrada Familia, the world’s tallest church. Leo will celebrate an evening Mass in the basilica and inaugurate its Tower of Jesus Christ, the soaring central piece that was moved into place in February.
The tower brought Sagrada Familia to its maximum height, 172.5 meters (566 feet) above Barcelona, but the building is still far from complete. When Benedict visited in 2010, he consecrated the basilica, and when Leo visits there will still be unfinished business: Gaudí is on the path to possible sainthood, but he will not be canonized during the pope’s trip, Spain’s bishops said Wednesday.
Leo is in many ways fulfilling the wish of his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis, by visiting the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off northwest Africa which is the main gateway for migrants from Africa to enter Spain.
Francis had made reaching out to migrants and refugees a hallmark of his papacy, and Leo has followed suit by demanding dignified treatment of migrants, especially in his native United States, amid the Trump administration crackdown.
Spain’s government under Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has championed legal immigration at a time when many governments in Europe are trying to decrease migrant arrivals and step up deportations.
Underway in the Iberian nation of 50 million is a migrant amnesty measure that aims to legalize the status of an estimated half a million people the government says are living in Spain without authorization.
Conservative opposition parties have criticized the approach, especially the far-right Vox party which has described the legalization push as an “attack on our identity.”