Pope Leo XIV heads to Spain for first visit, meeting migrants and leaders
Pope Leo XIV began a seven-day Spain trip that put migrants, abuse survivors and Vox-era politics at the center of his first EU visit outside Italy.
Pope Leo XIV arrived in Spain on Saturday for a seven-day trip that will take him to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, a journey that puts migration, secularization and Catholic identity at the center of his first visit to Spain and his first visit to an EU country outside Italy.
The Vatican’s itinerary includes meetings with King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, members of the Spanish parliament and migrant organizations. Leo is also scheduled to bless the new tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica, a symbolic stop that links the trip’s religious pageantry with a broader effort to project the church’s message on peace, unity, youth, culture, new technologies and migration. In the Canary Islands, he was expected to meet migrants and honor people who died or disappeared trying to reach Europe.
The trip lands in a country that has not hosted a papal visit since Benedict XVI in 2011, after 15 years without a pope in Spain. It also arrives as Spain’s Catholic landscape has weakened sharply, especially among younger adults: a cited Spanish survey showed that 32% of Spaniards ages 18 to 29 identified as Catholic in 2024, down from 60% in 2002. That decline has made the church’s public role more contested even before Leo’s arrival.
Leo signaled the tone he wanted to set while flying to Madrid, saying he wanted to “set a good example to the world about respect for human life.” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said migrants are “profoundly close to the pope’s heart,” a message that places the Canary Islands at the emotional center of the visit. The Atlantic route to the islands remains one of Europe’s deadliest migration corridors. Caminando Fronteras said 3,090 people died trying to reach Spain in 2025, including 1,906 on the Atlantic route to the Canaries.
The Canary Islands have become a pressure point in Europe’s migration politics, and Leo’s itinerary all but ensures a clash with Vox, which has criticized the Catholic Church in Spain over immigration and religious freedom. The Vatican also confirmed that Leo will meet survivors of clergy sexual abuse during the trip, adding another layer of accountability to a visit meant to test whether he can carry his social message into one of Europe’s most polarized and secularized political arenas.
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