Pope Leo delivered a powerful message to human trafficking survivors June 11 during the first stop of a two-day visit to Spain’s Canary Islands, one of Europe’s closest points of entry from the African coast.

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.

Amid the loneliness and despair of life behind bars, God continues to love and encourage the imprisoned to not let the sorrows of their past deter them from the hope of a better future, Pope Leo XIV told prisoners in Barcelona.

The U.S. bishops in a message to Pope Leo XIV June 10 thanked him for his new encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” and for shining “the light of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church on the new opportunities and challenges posed by the rise” of artificial intelligence and “emerging technologies.”

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.

Pope Leo XIV met the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny in Madrid June 8, after joking days earlier that he would be vying against the singer for Spaniards’ attention as their tours in Spain’s capital overlapped.

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.

Hours after celebrating Mass for an estimated 1.5 million people and leading a Corpus Christi procession through the streets of Madrid, Pope Leo XIV found himself in a very different setting.

In a sweeping address to the Spanish parliament, Pope Leo XIV delivered a forceful defense of the dignity of every human life, declaring that its protection is not a partisan issue but “a goal of civilization,” while addressing the issues of abortion, migration, freedom of conscience, the seal of confession and the Church’s role in public life.