Overview
- The pope arrived in Madrid and was received by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia as the start of a weeklong pastoral and state visit that will include Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
- Massive public events drew huge crowds, including a youth vigil of hundreds of thousands and an open-air Mass that officials put at about 1.2 million people and that led police to close access points for safety.
- On Monday the pope met Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and gave a speech to both chambers of the Spanish Parliament urging peaceful dispute resolution based on international law and calling for increased refugee assistance.
- The Vatican announced meetings between the pope and victims of clerical sexual abuse while some victim groups said they were not invited and Spain’s March agreement on compensation and a national inquiry into abuse inform the visit’s accountability focus.
- Planned stops in Barcelona to bless the Sagrada Família’s new Jesus tower and visits to the Canary Islands to meet migrants highlight a diplomatic aim to link moral leadership with concrete refugee and migration concerns and could boost Spain’s international profile on those issues.