BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is honoring two of Barcelona’s most sacred and beautiful monuments Wednesday with a noontime prayer at a mountain-top abbey and an evening Mass at the famed Sagrada Familia Basilica on the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí.Leo opened his day by visiting inmates at a Barcelona prison, keeping up the tradition of Pope Francis to use his foreign trips to minister to those who can’t join in the public celebrations when a pope comes to town.Leo is in Spain on a weeklong visit that has highlighted how the country of 50 million, which experienced a religious crisis after its 20th century dictatorship ended, still has plenty of faithful Catholics who have t urned out in droves to welcome the American pope.
The Bible carved in stone
The unique grandeur of the Sagrada Familia — the stone somehow carved to look lush as flora, the sandcastle-like spires, the color-flooded interior — means that even those who work and worship at Barcelona’s world famous basilica each and every day can still be surprised with some fresh wonder. (AP Video/Hernán Muñoz)
Leo will honor their popular piety by praying at Montserrat, a mountain complex outside the city that is dear to many Catalanas. The complex, which includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey and a 16th-century basilica, is revered for its Black Madonna statue. The highlight of Leo’s visit was expected to be his Mass on Wednesday evening back in town at Sagrada Familia. The Mass commemorates the 100th anniversary of the death of its designer, Gaudí, who died at age 73 three days after he was hit by a tram.
