Pope to inaugurate Barcelona's Sagrada Familia tower and meet with migrants in June trip to Spain

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.”

But Spain’s leftwing government has said the measure has the support of a broad coalition that includes the Catholic Church and many Spanish business leaders. Spain's population is aging, and Sánchez has repeatedly said Spain needs more workers to maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security.

Spain’s population now includes around 10 million foreign-born residents — or one in every five people. Many are from Latin America and Africa.

Leo will meet with organizations working with migrants in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. The following day he’ll meet with migrants at a reception center in Tenerife and separately with Spanish groups that work with them.

The Canary Islands are roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the closest point in Africa, but to avoid security forces, many migrants attempt longer journeys that can take days or weeks.

The islands have been a stepping stone for migrants trying to reach Europe from West Africa and Morocco for decades. Arrivals peaked in 2024 with nearly 47,000 arrivals according to Spain’s Interior Ministry statistics. Following pressure and deals between the European Union, Spain and the governments of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, arrivals have fallen dramatically with just over 2,000 migrants landing in the Canaries in the first four months of 2026.

A few weeks after Leo visits the Canary Islands, history's first U.S.-born pope will travel to the main migrant entry point to Europe, the Italian island of Lampedusa, Sicily, on July 4, to meet with migrants there. That's the same day the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence.

Naishadham contributed from Madrid and Brito from Barcelona, Spain.

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