BARCELONA, Spain — Pope Leo XIV will offer his formal blessing to the highest spire of what is now the world’s tallest church, when he holds Mass at the iconic Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Wednesday.
The event, the highlight of a weeklong trip to Spain that has already drawn huge crowds, is being held at the modernist basilica to coincide with the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí.
The American pontiff has recently clashed with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran and immigration, issues he has highlighted on this tour of the predominantly Catholic nation. It has also featured minor controversies over Leo’s sports fandom, and a private meeting with Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny.
The visit will be capped by the Mass on Wednesday evening at one of the world’s most visited, though unfinished, sites.
Standing at 566 feet high and crowned with a five-story ceramic cross, the central Tower of Jesus Christ is the highest of 18 adorning the Sagrada Familia, a bucket list item for most travelers to the city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region.
Leo will also commemorate the legacy of its architect, Gaudí, whose radical, modernist designs, were mocked in his lifetime but have subsequently been celebrated. Gaudí took over the construction of Sagrada Familia in 1883, a year after the first cornerstone laid during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII.
A devout Catholic, his work was far from finished when he was hit by a tram and killed in June 1926, at age 73, having devoted 43 years of his life to the basilica.
Dubbed “God’s architect” for his devotion, he designed some of Spain’s most famous religious sites and tourist attractions, and was put on the path to sainthood when Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, declared him “venerable” in recognition of his “heroic virtues” last year.
“Confirmation that faith inspired Gaudí in his works is found in his creations themselves, and not only in his religious works,” José Manuel Almuzara, the president of the Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí, told NBC News.
He added that there is “a miracle that is currently being studied and we hope he will be beatified this year,” on the centenary of Gaudí.
Leo’s presence is a “tribute to the architect’s spiritual and artistic legacy, in the same temple he dedicated most of his life to,” according to the Sagrada Familia’s website.
The mass will also feature “musicians and choirs from around Catalonia to fill the Basilica with their songs,” the official schedule says.
On his first significant European trip since being elected pontiff last year and the first papal trip to the predominantly Catholic nation in 15 years, Leo has warned that escalating conflicts have pushed the world into a profound crisis.
On Monday, he became the first pontiff to address the Spanish parliament, telling lawmakers that a lack of help for the world’s migrants was challenging “the ethical foundation of the international order.”
He spoke almost exclusively in Spanish, as he did at a vast outdoor Mass in Madrid on Sunday that organizers said was attended by some 1.5 million people.
Leo will also speak Spanish at the Sagrada Familia, although he is expected to make some comments in Catalan, the predominant language in Catalonia.
The final leg of his trip will see him visit the Canary Islands on Friday to meet with African migrants who made the dangerous journey to reach Spanish territory by boat. More than 3,000 people died attempting the journey last year, according to Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish humanitarian group.
Like his predecessor, Leo has maintained an emphasis on the dignity of migrants at a time of anti-immigration backlash across the world; in Spain.
It also emerged Tuesday that the pontiff held a brief private meeting with an outspoken critic of Trump’s hard-line anti-immigration policies, Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who was in Spain for a series of concerts.
Leo offered a short greeting to the reggaeton sensation at Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium on Monday evening, the Vatican said in a statement.
Christianity is receding in Spain, which underwent a religious crisis in the late 20th century during its return to democracy. One in five people polled Spain’s opinion agency in 2024 called themselves practicing Catholics.
But the people of Barcelona may have little choice but to adhere to the pope’s motto for the trip — “Alzad la mirada” or “lift up your eyes” — as they gaze up to the towering church that dominates the city’s skyline.
Rev. Joby Sebastian Kappipparambil said in an interview Tuesday that he thought the tower would elevate “their response to the daily sufferings and struggles,” and looking at the cross would bring salvation.
And in the near future they may also pray to a Saint Gaudí.
