{"id":32995,"date":"2026-06-01T20:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/32995\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:21:11","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-encourages-spain-to-renew-its-missionary-spirit-he-has-a-lived-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/32995\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV encourages Spain to renew its missionary spirit: ‘He has a lived experience’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Pope Leo XIV is pictured along with the theme of his June 6-12, 2026, apostolic visit to Spain, “Alzad la mirada” (“Lift up your eyes”) in this promotional image. In an interview with OSV News May 20, Cardinal Jos\u00e9 Cobo of Madrid said the pope will encounter a living and growing Church when he arrives in Madrid, a revitalization highlighted by his planned blessing of the cornerstones for 12 new parishes. (OSV News graphic\/courtesy Conelpapa.es)<\/p>\n

MADRID \u2014 \u201cSpain has been, and hopefully will continue to be, a very missionary nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV spoke these words during a brief encounter with Father Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Calder\u00f3n, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain. For Father Calder\u00f3n, they reflected something more than a passing compliment from a pontiff preparing to visit the country June 6-12.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey touched my heart,\u201d Father Calder\u00f3n told OSV News. \u201cThey strengthened my desire to continue promoting missionary awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As the first pope in modern history to have spent much of his priestly ministry as a missionary, Pope Leo arrives in Spain June 6 with a unique familiarity not only with the country itself \u2014 which he has visited almost 50 times \u2014 but also with the missionary tradition that helped shape Catholicism across much of the world.<\/p>\n

His itinerary will take him to Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, where he is expected to address Spain\u2019s parliament, inaugurate one of the towers of Barcelona\u2019s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica and meet migrants arriving in the Canary Islands.<\/p>\n

Yet beneath the official schedule lies a deeper connection.<\/p>\n

From his years as an Augustinian missionary and bishop in Peru to his service as prior general of the Augustinian order, Pope Leo repeatedly encountered Spanish missionaries and witnessed firsthand the legacy of a Church that for centuries sent priests, religious and lay missionaries across Latin America, Africa, Asia and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a lived experience that allows him to speak not about concepts, but about realities he has personally known,\u201d Father Calder\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

Father Calder\u00f3n believes Pope Leo\u2019s appreciation for Spain\u2019s missionary history is not rooted in nostalgia.<\/p>\n

In a February message to the priests of Madrid, the pope acknowledged the challenges posed by secularization and cultural change, but insisted that many people \u2014 especially young people \u2014 continue to search for deeper meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a time for withdrawal or resignation, but for faithful presence and generous availability,\u201d Pope Leo wrote, encouraging priests to trust that Christ is already at work in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

The theme will likely resonate throughout his visit. In Madrid, Pope Leo is expected to preside over a Corpus Christi procession that will incorporate some of Spain\u2019s most beloved expressions of popular piety, including traditional Holy Week pasos. Among them will be images of Our Lady of Almudena, patroness of Madrid, and Christ of Medinaceli, which will also make a pilgrimage to Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium for the pope\u2019s gathering with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Madrid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Souvenirs for Pope Leo XIV\u2019s apostolic trip to Spain June 6-12, 2026, are displayed May 29 at El Corte Ingles, a popular Spanish shopping mall and one of the biggest donors for the papal event (OSV News photo\/Paulina Guzik)<\/p>\n

The emphasis reflects what Father Calder\u00f3n believes will be one of the pope\u2019s central messages to Spanish Catholics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am convinced he wants Spanish Catholics to regain missionary enthusiasm,\u201d Father Calder\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

For Pope Leo,<\/a> the answer to secularization appears not to be retreat, but renewed evangelization \u2014 a theme that echoes both his own missionary experience and the centuries-old tradition that first brought the Gospel from Spain to much of the world.<\/p>\n

Juan Vicente Boo, a veteran Vatican journalist and author of the Spanish-language biography \u201cLe\u00f3n XIV: El Papa de la nueva era\u201d (\u201cLeo XIV: The Pope of a New Era\u201d), said the pope knows Spain better than many realize.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter studying his biography in depth, I discovered with astonishment that he knew Spain more thoroughly than many Spaniards,\u201d Boo told OSV News.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo first visited<\/a> Spain in July 1982 as a young Augustinian making a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. During the monthlong journey, he and fellow friars traveled across the country in a van, sleeping in tents and visiting 11 cities, including Madrid and \u00c1vila, the hometown of St. Teresa of \u00c1vila.<\/p>\n

He would return frequently over the following decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs prior general of the Augustinians, he eventually visited more than 30 Spanish cities over roughly 50 trips,\u201d Boo said. \u201cIt is the country he has visited most after Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

His ties to Spain, however, extend beyond travel.<\/p>\n

Father Alejandro Moral Ant\u00f3n, the Spanish Augustinian who succeeded Leo as prior general in 2013, said the future pope came to know generations of Spanish missionaries during his years in Rome, Peru and throughout the global Augustinian network.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, the pope is very familiar with Spanish missionaries and with the centuries-long history of Spain sending missionaries to Latin America and the rest of the world,\u201d Father Moral Ant\u00f3n told OSV News.<\/p>\n

The two men first met in Rome in the 1980s, when many Spanish Augustinians were studying there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to know our mentality, our way of thinking, and we constantly spoke about our missions in Latin America,\u201d Father Moral Ant\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

That familiarity deepened during Pope Leo\u2019s years in Peru, where he frequently encountered Spanish missionaries serving throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Later, as prior general, he visited every Augustinian jurisdiction in the world, including missions established by Spanish provinces in Peru, Colombia, Central America, India and Tanzania.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to see up close the love we had for these missions,\u201d Father Moral Ant\u00f3n said, describing a commitment rooted in the Augustinian values of communion, community and interiority.<\/p>\n

For historians, Pope Leo\u2019s familiarity with Spanish missionary work reflects a much broader historical reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visit of the missionary pope to the country of missions offers a magnificent opportunity to revisit Spain\u2019s missionary work throughout history,\u201d historian Luis Antequera told OSV News.<\/p>\n

According to Antequera, the story began in earnest with Spain\u2019s overseas expansion following 1492 and the arrival of missionaries in the Americas during Columbus\u2019 second voyage in 1493.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very beginning, evangelization was part of the project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Over the centuries that followed, Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits and other religious orders established missions throughout the Americas, Africa and Asia, often becoming not only evangelizers but also educators, scholars, linguists and defenders of Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

Antequera points to figures such as Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos, whose 1511 sermon denouncing abuses against Indigenous peoples remains one of the most famous sermons in Christian history, and Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas, whose advocacy helped shape debates over the treatment of native populations.<\/p>\n

The Augustinians also played a significant role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first Augustinian arrived in the Americas in 1527,\u201d Antequera noted, linking the order\u2019s missionary history to the pope\u2019s own religious family.<\/p>\n

Spanish missionaries would eventually establish enduring Catholic communities throughout Latin America, the Philippines and other parts of the world, helping shape what is now the global center of Catholicism.<\/p>\n

Father Calder\u00f3n believes that history remains alive in the Spanish church today, and that the visit will be less about celebrating Spain\u2019s missionary past than encouraging its missionary future: \u201cI am convinced he wants Spanish Catholics to regain missionary enthusiasm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although the number of missionaries has declined significantly in recent decades, Spain remains the country with most missionaries abroad and remains the second most generous financial supporter of missionary activity, preceded only by the United States.<\/p>\n

Whether speaking to priests in Madrid, migrants in the Canary Islands or the faithful gathered at Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium, Pope Leo\u2019s message is expected to be consistent: Spain\u2019s missionary story is not merely a chapter of history.<\/p>\n

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