{"id":18008,"date":"2026-05-06T14:35:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18008\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:35:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:35:16","slug":"pope-to-inaugurate-barcelonas-sagrada-familia-in-june-trip-to-spain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18008\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope to inaugurate Barcelona\u2019s Sagrada Familia in June trip to Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Pope Leo will inaugurate the soaring central tower of Barcelona\u2019s famed Sagrada Familia basilica when he visits Spain next month in a weeklong trip that will also take him to a migrant reception centre in the Canary Islands, the Vatican said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">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 will 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.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In Barcelona, Leo will be on hand to mark the 100th anniversary on June 10, of the death of Catalan architect Antoni Gaud\u00ed, who designed Sagrada Familia, the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The tower brought Sagrada Familia to its maximum height, 172\u00bd metres (around 566 feet) above Barcelona, but the building is still far from complete. When Benedict visited in 2010, he consecrated the basilica, and there will still be unfinished related business when Leo visits: Gaud\u00ed is on the path to possible sainthood, but he will not be canonised during the pope\u2019s trip, Spain\u2019s bishops said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/39b001e7-00d8-4a97-b36a-3187095a712c_bbb42a85.jpg\" title=\"The Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona. Photo: AFP\"\/>The Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The head of the Spanish Catholic bishops conference, Archbishop Luis Arg\u00fcello of Valladolid, highlighted Leo\u2019s planned address to parliament while in Spain as particularly significant. Only on rare occasions do popes address foreign legislatures, and the speeches often end up among the most noteworthy of a pontificate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo will inaugurate the soaring central tower of Barcelona\u2019s famed Sagrada Familia basilica when he visits Spain&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6211,1387,92,647,66,2312,9969,9417,9971,82,9970,9934,17,3703,9972],"class_list":{"0":"post-18008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-antoni-gaudi","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-canary-islands","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-king-felipe-vi","14":"tag-lampedusa","15":"tag-las-palmas","16":"tag-leo","17":"tag-madrid","18":"tag-pope-francis","19":"tag-sagrada-familia","20":"tag-spain","21":"tag-tenerife","22":"tag-vox-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}