When Pope Leo XIV visits Spain 6-12 June, he will bring with him decades of personal ties to the country and its missionary tradition.
During a recent meeting with Father José María Calderón, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, the pope praised Spain as “a very missionary nation,” words Father Calderón said deeply encouraged his work promoting missionary awareness.
Pope Leo has visited Spain almost 50 times. His itinerary will take him to Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, where he is expected to address Spain’s parliament, inaugurate one of the towers of Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica and meet migrants arriving in the Canary Islands.
From his years as an Augustinian missionary and bishop in Peru to his service as prior general of the Augustinian order, Pope Leo repeatedly encountered Spanish missionaries.
Pope Leo first visited Spain in July 1982 as a young Augustinian making a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. During the monthlong journey, he and fellow friars travelled across the country in a van, sleeping in tents and visiting 11 cities, including Madrid and Ávila, the hometown of St Teresa of Ávila.
He knows Spain “more thoroughly than many Spaniards,” said veteran Vatican journalist and author Juan Vicente Boo.
