Vatican

As hundreds of drones illuminated the night sky above Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, or Basilica of the Holy Family, forming the image of Antoni Gaudí and one of the architect’s most enduring maxims — “First love, then technique” — the message seemed almost paradoxical.

At the final Mass of his visit to Spain, Pope Leo XIV called on Christians to look beyond the allure of commerce and profit and instead embrace the vocation of hospitality and the wisdom that comes from the encounter with the vulnerable and the suffering.

Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10, inaugurating the crowning spire that makes the iconic church the tallest Catholic church the world and urging people to lift their gaze to Christ “who alone reveals to us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.”

As Catholics from around the world gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said the world’s growing need for peace cannot be separated from mercy, urging believers to become witnesses of God’s compassion in a time marked by war, violence and uncertainty.

Nearly 100 years after the death of “God’s architect” Antoni Gaudí, Pope Leo XIV arrived in Barcelona on June 9 for a two-day visit to the Catalan capital that will culminate in the inauguration of the crowning tower of his unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Família, or Basilica of the Holy Family.

At the start of his fourth trip abroad, Pope Leo XIV humbly predicted that young Spaniards would more likely attend shows scheduled on the same days as his visit starring a fellow-American, Bad Bunny, who has the most audio streams in the world.