Divisions, migration and Bad Bunny. What Pope Leo’s Spain visit tells us about his priorities

By Christopher Lamb, CNN

Madrid, Spain (CNN) — Pope Leo XIV urged against division and said the world is crying out for peace as he gave a speech after arriving in Spain on Saturday for the first major European trip of his pontificate.

“Our age, seemingly shaken by terrible imbalances and conflicts, cries out from its depths for peace,” the pontiff said, in an address in front of King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid.

The message of peace, he said, “at present unfortunately strikes some as naïve and others as confrontational.” It is, however, welcomed by those “who do not shut themselves off in preconceived ideologies, but are rather open to the truth.”

Later in the speech, he added: “For the love of truth, I invite everyone to set aside the divisive and polarizing narratives of your societal reality and history, so as to overcome sterile simplifications through the fruitful appreciation of complexity.”

Madrid is the first stop on his June 6 to 12 trip to Spain, where as well as meeting King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia he is due to address parliament at a time of intense political polarization in the country. Leo is also expected to address the plight of migrants on his trip.

While Spain has experienced secularization, it is a historic stronghold of Catholicism in Europe and large crowds are expected during the trip. The Vatican said the pope would also meet with clerical sexual abuse survivors.

Answering a question from CNN on board the plane, the pope spoke about the rise in interest in faith among young people, and about how his visit is coinciding with a concert in Madrid by the Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny.

He said he was “very pleased” by the reports he was receiving about an increase in conversions to Catholicism. “Young people that are looking for something more, having grown up in many cases without that, if you will, spiritual dimension in their lives, they realize there’s an emptiness, there’s a lack of a sense of meaning,” he said.

“If they are confronted with the question: do they want to see Bad Bunny or do they want to see the pope, I think many will go to see Bad Bunny. But I think there will also be a few there to see the pope. And that too says something, you know.”

Before the trip, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, the archbishop of Madrid, suggested that Bad Bunny could have some kind of meeting with Leo. The two share a concern over immigration policies, with the rapper declaring “ICE out” during his February Grammy acceptance awards.

Speaking on the plane, the pope said he had visited Spain “many times” and that he came with a “message for everyone” in the country which he described as “God’s love, charity, and respect for every human being.”

He also joked that he would support his native United States during the forthcoming soccer World Cup.

While in the capital, Leo will hold a meeting with young people at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid football club – a team it seems he might support. “The pope is for all teams, Prevost is for Real Madrid,” he said, a reference to his name before his election to the papacy.

Tensions with Trump

The pope was formally invited by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has been a vocal opponent of US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and has pursued a policy of welcoming immigrants. Sánchez also came to the defense of the Chicago-born pontiff after Trump criticized his stance on the war in April, with the left-wing Spanish leader saying that “while some sow wars, Leo XIV sows peace.”

Over recent weeks, the pope has continued to speak out against war, including the use of religious language to justify military conflict, and urged unity over division. He has also made immigration a priority since his election in May last year, all themes likely to cement his papacy as a counterweight to the Trump administration.

Leo’s first major theological document, published last month, said that the welcoming of migrants and refugees is a “litmus test” for social justice, and he’s described the treatment of immigrants in the US as “inhuman.”

During his visit, he will travel to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off northwestern Africa which has become a major entry point for new arrivals to Europe. While in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, he will meet with immigrants and groups seeking to integrate them into society, and pay tribute to those who have died at sea while attempting the treacherous journey to Europe.

Speaking ahead of the trip, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said immigration was something that the pope wants to address at “a human level.” The Catholic Church in Spain has a large charitable presence and is involved in helping immigrants.

Like the United States, Spain has a polarized political culture, and Leo will come face-to-face with that partisanship when he becomes the first pope to address both houses of the Spanish parliament in Madrid.

Sánchez’s left-wing government is facing difficulties including corruption scandals, while more conservative voices, such as the nationalist-populist right-wing party Vox, are rising in popularity.

“A government currently facing a period of accelerated political deterioration and besieged by multiple corruption scandals will seek to present itself, alongside the pope, as being on the ‘right side of history’ on issues such as opposition to the war in Iran and its migration policies,” Emilio Sáenz-Francés, professor of history and international relations at the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, told CNN.

But, he added, “in such a context, any papal message concerning political ethics, public integrity, or corruption could easily rebound against the government rather than reinforce its position.”

Sáenz-Francés says the pope will need to deploy “considerable political intelligence” to navigate the tensions, and the success of the visit will depend on Leo’s ability to “transcend Spain’s deeply polarized environment and speak to broader concerns.”

While Sánchez is aligned with the pope’s views on war and migration, his government has also clashed with the local Catholic Church over abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and with some church voices over memorials to former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, Spain’s nationalist leader during the country’s civil war.

But the pope, a fluent Spanish speaker, is no stranger to the country and is also aware of the political climate.

“Pope Leo speaks Spanish so well that nothing will be lost in translation,” Paloma García Ovejero, a former papal spokesperson who is from Madrid and now works as head of media for Catholic charity Mary’s Meals International, told CNN.

“And that’s key when you are talking about some complicated issues: polarization, immigration, friction between church and state. But he has shown that he’s not afraid to dig into delicate questions.”

Spain is the first major European visit for Leo since his election and the first papal visit to the country since 2011.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, tended to bypass Europe’s traditional Catholic heartlands, but the first American pope is making it a priority.

In September, Leo will go to France, another traditionally Catholic country – although one, like its neighbor to the south, that has seen considerable secularization.

“It’s true that Spain is in part highly secularized,” García Ovejero says. “But it’s also one of the European countries with the highest church attendance.”

Spain’s deep Catholic roots will come to the fore when, after his time in Madrid, the pope visits the autonomous region of Catalonia.

While in Barcelona he will visit Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família to inaugurate the church’s new Tower of Jesus Christ. Leo will celebrate a Mass in the church on the centenary of architect Gaudí’s death.

Leo’s itinerary also includes a visit to Montserrat, a place of immense spiritual and cultural significance for the Catalan region, and while there he will visit an 11th-century Benedictine monastery and have lunch with the resident monks.

Leo has insisted that the Catholic Church, if it wants to be a credible moral voice, must also face up to the darkness in its own past.

He will speak with “some victims of abuse by members of the clergy in Spain,” the Vatican confirmed Friday, in a meeting organized by the Spanish Church. On the plane, Leo told reporters that “abuses are still an open wound.”

Spain has been rocked by abuse scandals, with a 2023 independent commission reporting that more than 400,000 people had been victims of abuse by clergy and lay people in church institutions going back decades.

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