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.

There has been a sharp rise in reported harassment against Christians in Israel, according to new data presented June 4 by the Religious Freedom Data Center.

To commemorate the centennial year of the death of famed architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed Spain’s Sagrada Família basilica, The Lego Group announced June 4 the release of a new model kit of the church, calling it one of the world’s “most recognizable and ambitious” buildings.

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.

While flashy events are planned in the U.S. capital for the Independence Day weekend, a prayerful commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary unfolded June 5-6 as the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came to Washington to renew and deepen faith in Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.