San Francisco Frontiers - Pope Leo prepares to visit polarised, secular Spain

Leo's seven-day trip will include stops in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.

Highlights will include a mass at Barcelona's famed Sagrada Familia Basilica, a speech to the Spanish parliament and a visit to migrant centres in the Canary Islands.

The archipelago, located closer to the African continent than to Spain, has become the main entry point into Spain for irregular migrants.

The route is particularly perilous because of the long distances involved, the strong currents in the area and the frail boats on which the migrants usually travel for days or weeks.

The International Organisation for Immigration (IOM) estimates that 1,172 migrants died or went missing along the route in 2025 -- a figure only slightly lower than the 1,215 people in 2024.

- 'Major challenge' -

The pope's visit comes in a sensitive and very polarised political context.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist government supports a more open approach to immigration and has launched sweeping plans to regularise hundreds of thousands of migrants already living in Spain.

The right-wing opposition, and particularly the far right, back a tough stance.

The far-right Vox party, the third political force in the country, sums up its programme as the "defence of Spain, the family and life".

Vox has criticised the Catholic Church in Spain on immigration and religious freedom, accusing it of supporting an "invasion" of foreign migrants and reproaching it for being too tolerant towards other faiths.

Leo XIV "is arriving in a polarised country where different players could try to take advantage of the visit," said Rafael Rubio, the church's spokesman for the Spanish visit.

"Ensuring that his message reaches everyone and speaks to everyone is a major challenge," he said.

The pope's speech to the Spanish parliament on June 8 -- a rarity for a pontiff -- will be particularly highly anticipated.

As on his previous voyages, the 70-year-old, US-born pope also wants the trip to have a strong social dimension and he will be meeting with prisoners and homeless people and those who assist them.

- 'A source of inspiration' -

After an audience with the pope at the Vatican last week, Sanchez called Leo a "source of inspiration in a world that has never needed it so much".

Some 10,500 national police officers are being deployed for the visit, along with 2,190 members of the Guardia Civil.

There are also more than 4,000 journalists accredited from 80 nationalities.

In Madrid, Leo will be received by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia at the royal palace on Saturday.

He will hold a prayer vigil near Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium later that day and a mass in the city centre on Sunday.

In Barcelona, he will lead mass in the Sagrada Familia on June 10 -- on the 100th anniversary of the death of its innovative architect Antoni Gaudi.

The celebrated Catalan architect was a devout Catholic known as "God's architect" and was put on the path to sainthood last year by being declared "venerable" by the Vatican.

Leo will bless the basilica's Jesus Christ tower, the soaring central piece, which was completed in February.

The tower brought the basilica to its maximum height, 172.5 metres (566 feet), making the Sagrada Familia the world's tallest church.

Last year, nearly five million people visited the Sagrada Familia -- known for its soaring towers and symbolism-rich modernist architecture -- making it Spain's most-visited paid monument.

Notably absent from the Vatican programme, however, are any meetings with victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.

Some 200,000 minors have suffered such abuse in Spain since 1940, according to a 2023 report from Spain's national ombudsman.

Sanchez's government and the Catholic Church in Spain signed an agreement in March to compensate victims after years of reticence and opacity from the Church hierarchy.

Q.Nelson--SFF