By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, June 3 (Reuters) – Pope Leo heads to Spain on Saturday for a week-long tour, his first visit to an EU country outside Italy, which will culminate with the pontiff meeting migrants in the Canary Islands who braved dangerous Atlantic waters to enter Europe.
Leo, who drew the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump after criticising his anti-immigration policies, is expected to attract large crowds on the June 6 to 12 visit and will also be the first pope to address the Spanish parliament.
The first U.S. pope’s itinerary includes stops in Madrid, Montserrat and Barcelona, where he will inaugurate the newest tower of the Sagrada Familia, the famed modernist basilica that has become the world’s tallest church.
DEADLY MIGRATION ROUTE
On the last two days of the visit, Leo will travel to the Spanish islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, off the western coast of Africa, where he will meet with migrants and organizations dedicated to helping them.
The visit to the islands will send a signal that the pope stands “shoulder to shoulder” with migrants, said Caya Suárez Ortega, who heads the Church’s leading NGO in the Canary Islands.
“The first thing the migrants said to me when they were invited (to the papal meetings) … was their enormous gratitude that he would stand alongside them,” said Suárez, director of Caritas Canarias.
More than 3,000 people died in 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, often in makeshift dinghies, according to NGO Caminando Fronteras.
The pope comes to Spain as Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has opened a mass amnesty programme, allowing an estimated 500,000 immigrants to apply for legal status.
Sanchez, who has been lauded abroad after sharply criticizing Trump, is trailing in polls and coming under fire over a string of corruption allegations against his party.
Leo will give two addresses in Madrid to Spain’s political leaders: on Saturday at the Royal Palace after meeting King Felipe and Queen Letizia, and on Monday at parliament.
NUMBERS OF PEOPLE INTERESTED IN VISIT ‘ASTONISHING’
The pope has adopted a more forceful tone in recent months and issued a fervent manifesto last week urging global governments to slow down the development of AI systems.
Leo, who spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before becoming pope last May, is expected to speak Spanish throughout the trip.
Organisers of the pope’s Spain trip said interest in the visit has been strong, with more than 500,000 requesting to attend events.
The largest event is likely to be an outdoor Mass on Sunday in Madrid’s landmark Plaza de Cibeles, said Rafael Rubio, the national coordinator for the visit. “The numbers are astonishing,” he said.
The last pope to visit Spain was Benedict XVI, in 2011.
Narciso Michavila Nuñez, a sociologist with the Spanish consulting firm GAD3, said young Spaniards have shown particular interest in the visit. “This is the first time they are going to see a pope,” he said.
After three days in Madrid, Leo is travelling to Catalonia, the autonomous region in northeastern Spain.
In Montserrat, 60 km (37 miles) northwest of Barcelona, he will visit and have lunch with Benedictine monks who live at an 11th century abbey nestled inside the cliffs of a mountain range.
Sister Teresa Forcades, part of a nearby separate community of Benedictine nuns, said her group had not been invited to take part in the papal events there.
“No nun … has been invited to greet the pope or to the lunch,” she said. “Maybe if Pope Leo knew about it, he would like to change it.”
A Vatican spokesman did not respond to a question about why the nuns had not been invited to the events.
POPE LIKELY TO MEET ABUSE VICTIMS
Although it is not on the public agenda, Leo is also likely to have a meeting with Spanish survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
A 2023 report by Spain’s human rights ombudsman estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of clergy abuse there over decades, echoing similar scandals that have shaken the Church in places across the globe.
The Vatican usually does not announce meetings between the pope and survivors in advance, so as to protect the survivors’ privacy.
Leo, who has undertaken three earlier trips outside Italy since becoming pope, is not known to have previously met with abuse survivors during a visit.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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