The Pope would visit Spain this year in an apostolic trip that would include stops in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, as confirmed by Cardinal José Cobo after a meeting at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
Although no date has been set, the plan presented to the Holy See’s diplomatic team marks the first draft of an agenda that could make Spain one of the key destinations of the first term of Leon XIV‘s papacy. For the Spanish Church, the Pope would visit Spain this year represents the response to a long-expressed request by bishops and faithful.
Leon XIV looks to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands
Cobo explained that Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands are the three initially proposed sites and that they should now be reviewed and adjusted by the pontiff. If confirmed, the Pope would visit Spain this year in a tour that would combine pastoral acts, meetings with authorities and possible symbolic gestures related to the country’s social and migratory reality.
In the meeting at the Vatican, the President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, the Archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omella, and the Archbishop of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos Pérez, along with the CEE spokesperson, Francisco César García Magán, also participated. From the Vatican side, the main interlocutor was the Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the number two of the Secretariat of State.
A personal initiative of Pope Leon XIV
Cardinal Cobo emphasized that this possible tour does not respond only to an institutional invitation, but has been described as a “personal initiative” of the pontiff. According to him, Leon XIV has directly conversed with several Spanish bishops to sound out options and pastoral priorities in the country.
Before his election in the conclave of May 2025, the current Pope had already visited Spain on several occasions, which reinforces the idea of a prior link with Spanish social and religious reality. That the Pope would visit Spain this year is interpreted by the hierarchy as a sign of closeness to a Church that has lived internal tensions, accelerated secularization processes and debates about its public role.
The long-awaited wish of Francis and the focus on migration
The possible stop in the Canary Islands revives a project that had already been considered by Pope Francis, who had wanted to visit the archipelago to highlight the migratory route to Europe. That visit never materialized, but the new pontiff seems determined to take up that sensitivity.
Cobo pointed out that the migratory phenomenon has been one of the topics taken up by Leon XIV since the beginning of his papacy. In that context, if the Pope would visit Spain this year with a stop in the Canary Islands, it could become a direct message about the “great gates of entry” to Europe and the situations that, according to the cardinal, are often left invisible.
Expectation in the Church and Spanish authorities
Within the Spanish episcopate, the expectation is high. The bishops consider that Spain had been “asking for a long time” for a papal visit and see the opening of this process as a reason for “joy and hope” both for the Church and for civil authorities.
Now, the Spanish Episcopal Conference awaits the official instructions of Leon XIV to activate what Cobo described as the “enormous machinery” of logistics necessary for a trip of this level: security, liturgy, mobility, management of large crowds and coordination with the central government, autonomous communities and municipalities of Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
Pastoral impact and international projection
If it is confirmed that the Pope would visit Spain this year, the trip would arrive at a time when the Spanish Church is trying to recompose its image, strengthen its social work and respond to challenges such as the loss of young faithful and pressure on its educational and charitable structures.
For the Vatican, a tour of Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands would also have a geopolitical and pastoral component: to situate Spain as a bridge between Europe and Latin America, and to use the international media focus to insist on the protection of migrants, social cohesion and dialogue with increasingly secularized societies. In that scenario, that the Pope would visit Spain this year would be one of the most relevant religious and diplomatic events on the European calendar.
