Spain Pope Sagrada Familia Montserrat

Pope Leo XIV will bridge 1,000 years of church history Wednesday when he visits a medieval monastery on a mountaintop that local Catholics consider sacred and then celebrates Mass at Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia Basilica. The Montserrat monastery is dear to many Catalans, a proud people in northeastern Spain, and its Madonna is revered. But most Catholics and nonbelievers will be focused on the pope’s evening Mass at Sagrada Familia to commemorate the centennial of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí. Leo’s visit to both sites illustrates his balancing act of upholding centuries-old religious traditions in a country where faith is waning, while reaching a global audience from a basilica that is a magnet for tourists.

Pope Leo XIV has celebrated the Sagrada Familia Basilica as a masterpiece of “stones, colors and light.” He marked the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí, with a Mass. Leo called Gaudí’s unfinished temple, one of the world’s most visited monuments, a “sign of unity and harmony for all of Spain.” The service Wednesday was the highlight of Leo’s weeklong visit to Spain. It was the first visit by a pope in 15 years to the once-staunchly Catholic European country that, like many others, has experienced secularizing trends. The trip, though, has shown the country still has plenty of faithful Catholics who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope.