From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
June 13, 2026 (#105)
The Pope in Spain
Pope Leo XIV processing with the Blessed Sacrament in Madrid
It has been reported that as many as 1.2 million people flooded the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, June 7, 2026, to accompany Pope Leo XIV in the liturgical celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. And it is estimated that more than 500,000 young people joined the Pope the evening before in a prayer vigil that included Eucharistic adoration. Such enthusiastic turnouts should not be underestimated, especially in a much-secularized Europe and in a socially and politically divided Spain.
Pope St. John Paul II made five pastoral visits to Spain between 1982 and 2003. Pope Benedict XVI made three journeys to the same country between 2006 and 2011. Pope Francis never visited Spain during his papacy. When asked in 2019 by a reporter why he was apparently avoiding the country, he indicated that he would visit there only “when there is peace.” Various sources indicate that in recent years, he had hoped to travel to the Canary Islands to show solidarity with African migrants who were taking great risks to land there, but his declining health made such a journey impossible. Pope Leo is scheduled to visit the Canary Islands as part of his current apostolic visit to Spain.
Spain has been socially and politically divided for a very long time. Many Americans are not aware that regional divides have existed on the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. For much of the modern era, the nation was referred to as “The Spains,” and there is still a significant independence movement, for example, in Catalonia, where the pope will soon arrive, in the city of Barcelona. In this environment, heightened political and religious conflicts have frequently given rise to violent and deadly eruptions. For example, during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, it is estimated that at least 500,000 people were killed. Of those, more than 6,000 were bishops, priests, and religious who were murdered because of their faith. Of this last group, more than 2,250 have been declared among the Blessed and 11 of them have been proclaimed by the Church as Saints. Moreover, there are approximately 2,000 additional candidates whose causes for canonization are currently underway.
Political and social fallout from that bloody conflict and the dictatorship that followed continues in Spain, as seen in the more recent government challenges to the Catholic Church related to a basilica and monastery (Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen), which were established and built between 1940 and 1958 under the direction of General Franco, in order to commemorate the victims of the Civil War. The body of Franco, which had been buried in the basilica was exhumed and reburied by orders of the current socialist government in 2019. A symbol of significant divisions within the broader society might be evidenced in the professed atheism of the current Prime Minister, who is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, in contrast to the apparent Catholicism of the King of Spain and his family.
Given these monumental divides and painful history, the visit and words of Pope Leo, and the response to the Spanish people might be of intense interest not only to the people of Spain, but to the faithful throughout the world.
