León XIV will make history in Spain: the Vatican confirms his speech in Congress on June 8

The Vatican confirmed this Wednesday the official program of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Spain, a historic trip that will take place from June 6 to 12 and that will include stops in Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Tenerife. The visit will be marked by an intense institutional, social, and religious agenda, with one of its most notable moments next June 8, when the Pontiff delivers a speech in the Congress of Deputies, becoming the first Pope to intervene before the Cortes Generales in joint session as head of State.

The arrival of León XIV in Spain will occur exactly fifteen years after the last visit of a Pontiff to the country, led by Benedict XVI in 2011. The Pope will land at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport on June 6 and will be received with official honors before moving to the Palacio de la Zarzuela and subsequently to the Palacio Real de Madrid, where he will hold meetings with the kings and presumably also with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.

The trip will also have a marked social component. During his stay in Madrid, León XIV will visit the CEDIA 24-hour center of Cáritas in the Carabanchel district, dedicated to the care of homeless people. He will also lead a vigil with young people on the Paseo de la Castellana and will celebrate on June 7, the feast of Corpus Christi, a massive mass in Cibeles square followed by the traditional procession. That same day he will participate in a meeting with representatives of culture and civil society at the Movistar Arena.

The day of June 8 will concentrate the greatest political and ecclesial weight of the visit. After his intervention in Congress, the Pontiff will hold meetings with bishops, priests, and seminarians, in addition to participating in an offering at the Catedral de la Almudena and in an event with laypeople at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The program, however, still does not officially contemplate a meeting with victims of sexual abuse within the Church, an absence that has already drawn criticism from affected associations and groups defending victims of clerical pedophilia.

On June 9, León XIV will travel to Barcelona, where he will star in a multitudinous meeting with young people at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys before visiting the women's prison of Brians 1. Later he will move to the Monasterio de Montserrat to participate in a multitudinous event and meet with social entities such as Cáritas and the Sisters of Charity. Already in the afternoon, he will go to the Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, where two historical events will coincide: the inauguration of the tower of Jesus Christ, 172.5 meters high, and the centenary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí, who died on June 10, 1926.

The last stage of the journey will take the Pontiff to Canarias, where the migratory phenomenon will occupy a central place on his agenda. The Pope will visit the port of Arguineguín, in Gran Canaria, the main point of arrival for cayucos from África, and will hold meetings with organizations working with migrants and refugees. In addition, he will go to the Las Raíces reception center, in Tenerife, where people in vulnerable situations reside. The journey will conclude on June 12 with a multitudinous mass at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, thus closing a visit that the Vaticano presents as a combination of institutional gestures, social defense, and pastoral outreach.