{"id":2857,"date":"2026-06-09T07:33:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2857"},"modified":"2026-06-09T07:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:33:44","slug":"pope-leo-will-tap-into-the-sagrada-familias-allure-while-honoring-catalonias-holy-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2857","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo will tap into the Sagrada Familia\u2019s allure while honoring Catalonia\u2019s holy mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV will bridge 1,000 years of church history Wednesday, visiting a medieval monastery on a mountaintop that local Catholics consider sacred and then celebrating Mass at Barcelona\u2019s famous Sagrada Familia Basilica.<\/p>\n

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Montserrat, a healthy drive from the city followed by a steep ascent, is dear to many of the Catalan people in northeastern Spain. Annually, 2 million people travel to the complex that includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey as well as a 16th-century basilica. Its Black Madonna statue, which studies show originally was white but turned dark by centuries of smoke and incense before being painted black, is widely revered.<\/p>\n

But for many Catholics watching from afar \u2014 and especially non-Catholics \u2014 the highlight of the Chicago-born pope\u2019s seven-day trip to Spain will be his evening Mass at the Sagrada Familia \u2014 the Basilica of the Holy Family \u2014 commemorating the centennial of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaud\u00ed. Leo will speak almost exclusively Spanish on the trip, with some comments in Catalan.<\/p>\n

The visit illustrates his balancing act of upholding centuries-old religious traditions in a country where faith is waning while reaching a global audience from a basilica that is more a magnet for tourists than believers. Yet the two sites share a connection even some locals don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

A pulpit for the world<\/h3>\n

The Sagrada Familia fuses the universal language of nature \u2014 trees, birds, reptiles, cornucopias of fruit \u2014 with scenes from Christ\u2019s life. Beyond that unique aesthetic, its allure stems from allowing visitors to bear witness to a great church\u2019s ongoing construction.<\/p>\n

That began 144 years ago, with the first cornerstone laid in 1882 during the pontificate of Leo\u2019s namesake, Pope Leo XIII.<\/p>\n

Its claim to \u201cthe new\u201d is what sets Gaud\u00ed\u2019s masterpiece apart from Europe\u2019s other cathedrals and why it has captivated millions. Leo\u2019s Mass is an opportunity to link him with this breathtaking place of worship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts stones and stained glass speak of the possibility of conjuring up 2,000 years of Christian history from a modern and even postmodern view,\u201d Ferran S\u00e1ez, professor of humanities at Barcelona\u2019s University of Ram\u00f3n Llull, told The Associated Press. \u201cIt is a building that expresses very complex ideas while coming across as comprehensible for anyone who is receptive, whether they are Christian or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sagrada Familia is an international sensation, featuring on virtually any self-respecting globetrotter\u2019s bucket list. Foreigners account for 90% of its visitors, whose entrance fees fund its construction, and more Americans visit than Spaniards, according to the basilica.<\/p>\n

While there aren\u2019t statistics on visitors\u2019 average age, it is hugely popular among adolescents and twentysomethings. That\u2019s in stark contrast to the graying parishioners at most Spanish churches at a moment the Catholic Church strives to engage with and remain relevant to youth.<\/p>\n

The basilica\u2019s latest superlative \u2014 world\u2019s tallest church, with its recently raised Tower of Jesus Christ \u2014 has made it an even greater beacon.<\/p>\n

Catalans see Montserrat as a spiritual home<\/h3>\n

The Sagrada Familia is a global pulpit, but it\u2019s set in a country where Christianity is receding. Spain underwent a religious crisis in the late 20th century during its return to democracy. Just over half of Spaniards polled by the state opinion agency in 2024 self-identified as Catholics, but only about 1 in 5 called themselves practicing Catholics.<\/p>\n

And Catalonia is one of Spain\u2019s most secular provinces, S\u00e1ez said. <\/p>\n

Catalonia\u2019s Catholics are reserved in their practice, without flamboyant Easter Week processions like those in Seville and other Spanish cities.<\/p>\n

The force of their faith rests in its holy places: the Sagrada Familia, the Poblet monastery and the Romanesque churches dotting the foothills of the Pyrenees. And, above all, in Montserrat, where pilgrims arrive by bus, cable car, cog railway and strenuous trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is home to our most beloved representation of Mary, the Black Madonna,\u201d Catalan theologian Francesc Torralba told AP. \u201cMany Catalans pray to her and feel close to her in times of need. Montserrat is a key to our culture, as well as our efforts to maintain our language and our traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Montserrat is the region\u2019s religious epicenter, its faith is \u201cculturally expressed in its artistic creations\u201d like the Sagrada Familia, he added. <\/p>\n

Throngs of tourists<\/h3>\n

And it\u2019s that unbridled and unique artistry that draws so many visitors. Many Barcelona residents feel the Sagrada Familia\u2019s fame has driven some of overtourism\u2019s worst ills. Tour buses flood the area with day-trippers from cruise ships, and streets facing the church are full of fast food restaurants and souvenir shops. Protesters who squirted tourists with water guns last year were planning to reach the Sagrada Familia until police stopped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere there are two people (tourists and locals), there can be friction, and that happens in the best marriages,\u201d the Sagrada Familia\u2019s rector, the Rev. Josep Turull, told AP. \u201cSo we try, just like with a marriage, for these small crises to be growing pains, and that\u2019s why we try to not just welcome pilgrims and tourists but also make sure that our parishioners feel that this is their basilica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo could bring even more tourists. Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s consecration to make it an operating basilica in 2010 boosted visits from about 3 million a year to nearly 5 million in 2025, according to Xavier Mart\u00ednez, the CEO of the Sagrada Familia\u2019s construction project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that on June 10 we will experience something similar to what we saw in 2010,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said. \u201cAt that time, the world discovered the interior of the Sagrada Familia. Now the world will discover the towers of the Sagrada Familia.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tour guide and historian M\u00f2nica Sant\u00edn has seen the Sagrada Familia\u2019s stunning power for believers and nonbelievers alike; some even weep upon crossing the church\u2019s threshold. As personally fulfilling as it is to help tourists achieve these life-changing moments, she is concerned Leo\u2019s Mass could drive tourism to levels that are unsustainable for the community.<\/p>\n

The sacred sites share a connection<\/h3>\n

Sant\u00edn has reserved her spot to see Leo in person, but it won\u2019t be at the basilica. She will instead make the journey to the Montserrat monastery.<\/p>\n

Sant\u00edn\u2019s grandmother made the same pilgrimage, walking barefoot to a mountainside cave where legend has it shepherds discovered the Black Madonna statue and prayed for protection for her husband during the Spanish Civil War. Today, Sant\u00edn wears the ring her grandmother gave her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how it doesn\u2019t fall apart,\u201d Sant\u00edn said, gently touching her ring, with its profile of the Virgin of Montserrat, the patron saint of Catalonia, barely visible after so many years.<\/p>\n

And she notes that Montserrat and the Sagrada Familia have a shared, but little-known, connection.<\/p>\n

A young Gaud\u00ed apprenticed with an architect building the mountaintop chapel for the Virgin of Montserrat, according to Sant\u00edn, who is researching her doctoral thesis on the architect at Barcelona\u2019s ISCREB theology school. That same architect was originally hired to build the Sagrada Familia, but material costs made his neo-Gothic proposal inviable and the commission went to Gaud\u00ed. As part of his radical design, he introduced elements of the mountain.<\/p>\n

Even the basilica\u2019s sandcastle-like towers resemble the spirelike rock formations that every Catalan can identify as jutting from Montserrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontserrat is our holy mountain,\u201d Sant\u00edn said. \u201cThe Sagrada Familia is like a Montserrat in the middle of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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