POPE LEO XIV has arrived in Madrid for a seven-day visit to Spain, which will include a meeting with abuse victims and migrants.
As the pontiff began the papal visit, he told reporters that sexual abuse within the Catholic Church “is still an open wound”.
During his visit, Leo will also bless the new tower of the Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, now the world’s tallest church.
On Sunday, around a million people are set to attend a Mass in the city centre.
And on Monday, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium will host a papal event.
Meanwhile, Leo acknowledged he is competing with another VIP in Madrid this weekend, with Puerto Rican sensation Bad Bunny performing two shows of his 10-concert Spanish tour in the capital.
“If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo said.
“But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”
The papal visit started with a welcome at the royal palace in Madrid from Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
Leo will end his first day in Spain with a prayer vigil with young people in the Plaza de Lima.
Meanwhile, Leo’s visit to Spain will include a meeting with abuse victims.
This was confirmed on Friday following media reports in Spain.
The Vatican’s press office said the meeting was organised by the Spanish Church and that “further information may be provided after the meeting itself, with respect for the victims, their wishes, and their privacy”.
Vatican News has remarked that the “issue of abuse remains a painful one for the Spanish Church” and that in recent years “various initiatives aimed at prevention and reparation” have been implemented.
Some 200,000 minors are estimated to have suffered such abuse in Spain since 1940, according to a 2023 report from Spain’s national ombudsman.
In March of this year, Pedro Sanchez’s government and the Catholic Church in Spain signed an agreement to compensate victims.
Vatican News described this as an attempt by the Church to “address this painful reality with truth and justice”.
Later next week, on Thursday, Leo will visit the Canary Islands and meet with migrants and the organisations helping them.
The Canaries – Spanish islands off the coast of West Africa - have become the main entry point for irregular migrants into Spain after long and dangerous trips from Africa.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration estimates 1,172 migrants died or went missing along the route in 2025 – a figure only slightly lower than the 1,215 people in 2024.
Spain under prime minister Pedro Sanchez has a relatively liberal immigration policy.
But his government is under pressure from the Popular Party and extreme-right Vox, the third political force in the country, which sums up its programme with a slogan calling for the “defence of Spain, the family and life”.
The late Pope Francis had wanted to visit migrants in the Canary Islands, but illness prevented this journey.
Leo will now make this journey instead, alongside Sanchez, to honour thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe.
Ousseynou Fall, who fled Senegal and now lives on Gran Canaria, had a letter delivered to Francis, via a Spanish journalist, inviting the late pontiff to the Canaries.
He is a former fisherman who now works as a chef.
Fall told Vatican News: “If I could speak with the Pope, the first thing I would ask is that he help us do much more for migrants who die along the way.
“People who wanted to come here but never made it. My brother also died on the journey. And so did many others.”
‘Polarised country’
The papal visit comes as Sanchez is under attack from critics over several corruption scandals involving his inner circle.
His wife, brother, former top Socialist officials, and ex-prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are embroiled in separate cases.
The scandals have embarrassed Sanchez, who took power in 2018 promising to clean up Spanish politics after the Popular Party became mired in its own corruption affair.
Sanchez has rebuffed opposition demands to resign, insisting his minority coalition will see out its term until the next scheduled vote in 2027.
Leo “is arriving in a polarised country where different players could try to take advantage of the visit”, said Rafael Rubio, the Church’s spokesman for the Spanish visit.
“Ensuring that his message reaches everyone and speaks to everyone is a major challenge,” he said.
Some 15,000 members of the national police and Guardia Civil are being deployed for the visit, alongside local police forces.
It is the US-born pope’s first trip to an EU country outside of Italy and the first state visit to Spain by a pope since Benedict XVI came in 2010.