Pope Leo XIV in Barcelona, "in Don Bosco's Company"

Pope Leo XIV in Barcelona, “in Don Bosco's Company”

(ANS – Barcelona - June 12, 2026) – Pope Leo XIV spent the 2d, extended stage of his apostolic journey in Spain in Barcelona, a city with deep ties to Don Bosco. Pope Leo’s messages and gestures as a true shepherd didn’t leave the faithful who had gathered there indifferent, just as Don Bosco’s visit to the Catalan city was not without fruit. With the help of an authoritative son of Don Bosco who is a native of Barcelona, Fr. Joan Lluis Playà, delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, let’s revisit some of the key moments of this Catalan leg of the papal journey through a Salesian lens.

On Wednesday, June 10, from the central balcony of the façade of the abbey of Montserrat, one of Catalonia’s great spiritual symbols, Pope Leo XIV delivered a message of unity and asked, before the thousands of faithful listening to him, that they live “all united as one family” – an image that became one of the key themes of his visit to this Autonomous Community of Spain.

Similarly, during the Mass he presided over on the centennial of Antoni Gaudí’s death, at his masterpiece the Sagrada Familia, Pope Leo XIV once again issued an appeal to the heart of every Christian, calling for peace and hospitality, emphasizing that those who believe can’t kill the innocent nor “abandon those who suffer, those who weep, those fleeing poverty.”

Indeed, Don Bosco was also present at both these Christian landmarks from which Pope Leo addressed his messages of unity and brotherhood. Fr. Playà explains: “The promoters of these works wanted them to feature saints born in Barcelona or those who had had a direct connection with the city. And Don Bosco is certainly one of them.”

The saint of youth visited Barcelona in the final phase of his life, in 1886, but still found time there to arouse great attention and zeal for the Lord, so much so that he received a donation of land on Mount Tibidabo and had the great shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus built there, which stands there today as an ideal continuation of the work in Rome to which he had dedicated the last years of his life. “Now that the church of the Sacred Heart in Rome is almost complete,” said Don Bosco upon receiving the unexpected donation in Barcelona, “we must consider how to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ever more. And an inner voice assured me that I would find the means to fulfill my desire. This voice kept repeating to me: Tibidabo, tibidabo (I will give, I will give – in Latin)” (MB XVIII,114).

DB at Monserrat

Returning to the two statues, the rector major’s delegate for the Salesian Family adds: “In the case of the abbey of Montserrat, the image of Don Bosco flanked by 2 children is situated directly in front of the basilica, as if to establish a direct dialog with the abbey and with our Lady venerated there. In the case of the Sagrada Família, it was Antoni Gaudí who, from the very start of construction, desired the presence of the saints as living symbols of the practice of virtue and examples for the world, so that their contemplation might foster remembrance and inspire imitation.”

Furthermore, the reference to Don Bosco in the Sagrada Família Basilica offers a natural link to the Salesian basilica of the Sacred Heart on Tibidabo.

DB at Sagrada Familia

 Fr. Playà concludes:

 “Just as the tower of the Sagrada Família is the highest point of the city’s buildings, so Tibidabo, presided over by the Sacred Heart, is the highest point of the mountain that surrounds the city. And Don Bosco, always depicted with young people by his side, invited us precisely to ‘Raise Our Eyes’ – the motto of this apostolic journey – to rekindle our faith, nourish our hope and practice charity.”