标签： Europe

On Tuesday, U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV touched down in Barcelona for the second leg of his week-long visit to Spain, stepping straight into two of the nation’s most long-running and divisive cultural flashpoints. Days before his arrival, the pontiff had already sparked anger among FC Barcelona’s loyal fanbase with an unapologetic reveal: his soccer allegiance lies not with their beloved local club, but with their bitter historic rival, Real Madrid.

Aboard the papal flight bound for Spain, when asked about his sporting preferences, Pope Leo clarified: “The pope is for all teams, but Prevost is for Real Madrid” — a reference to his birth name Robert F. Prevost. Real Madrid’s official social media channels quickly shared the clip of the exchange, with fans joking online that the club is “the team of God.” Popular Spanish sports commentator Tomás Roncero of leading daily AS doubled down on the partisan tone in a viral video, claiming “the pope can’t be for Barça because it is a sinful club … in his heart he is of a pure and clean club like Madrid.”

Prior to arriving in Catalonia, the pope’s schedule in Madrid further cemented his public connection to the capital’s iconic club. He toured Real Madrid’s trophy-laden museum alongside club president Florentino Pérez, who gifted him a custom team jersey emblazoned with his full name. Thousands of Catholic worshippers also gathered at Real Madrid’s home stadium for a papal rally, where performers clad in the Holy See’s white and yellow colors juggled soccer balls for the crowd. In remarks at the event, Pope Leo declared, “Today the Church in Madrid has scored a great goal to always be remembered!”

For many Catalans and fans of non-Madrid clubs across Spain’s regionally diverse country, Real Madrid is far more than just a soccer team. It is widely viewed as a symbol of conservative central Spanish power, long tied to the national government and the Catholic Church as one of the core institutional pillars of the unified Spanish state — a framing that stings particularly in regions like Catalonia with strong separatist sentiment and distinct local identities.

That context made the pope’s soccer loyalty a sore point even before he arrived in Barcelona. Standing outside the iconic Sagrada Familia basilica — where Pope Leo will lead a major public Mass on Wednesday, the centerpiece of his Catalan stop — local office worker and lifelong Barça fan Eduard Modroño expressed disappointment. “A figure as important as he is shouldn’t take sides. Now that he has said that he supports Real Madrid, well, I am sorry, he has messed it up,” Modroño told reporters.

The second, far more politically charged controversy revolves around language use. Catalan, a tongue spoken by roughly 10 million people mostly in northeastern Spain, was brutally suppressed under Francisco Franco’s 20th-century fascist dictatorship. Decades after Franco’s death, Catalans remain fiercely protective of their language, and the fight to preserve its public status has been a core driver of the region’s independence movement, which reached a peak with a failed 2017 secession bid that remains a raw national wound.

Many Catalan activists and residents had publicly called on the pope to prioritize Catalan over Spanish during his public remarks in Barcelona, ahead of his onward journey to the Canary Islands. In a small but symbolic gesture to defuse tensions ahead of his visit, Pope Leo opened his first public address at Barcelona’s cathedral with introductory remarks in Catalan, alternating between the language and Spanish throughout his homily.

“Beloved brothers and sisters, it is with great pleasure that I start my visit holding the midday prayer at this cathedral,” he said in Catalan. Previous popes including John Paul II and Benedict XVI made small nods to Catalan during their 1982 and 2010 visits to the city, and the Spanish king regularly uses the language when visiting the region — though it remains rare for non-Catalan national politicians from central Spain to do so.

Even so, the gesture of a few opening words in Catalan has failed to satisfy many local residents and separatist politicians. During a brief meeting with the pope at the Spanish parliament on Monday, Míriam Noqueras of the pro-independence party Junts told him in English: “Speaking the language of the land that welcomes you is a wonderful act of love and respect. I hope you enjoy your visit to Catalonia, my nation.”

Barcelona’s archbishop Juan José Omella has sought to play down expectations, explaining that the pope prepared his remarks with full awareness of Catalonia’s linguistic history, but has no illusions about his own limited fluency. “The pope knew beforehand that he is coming to a country (Catalonia) where people speak a very old language that has never been lost through the centuries,” Omella told reporters. “He knows this and has prepared his speeches and his homily, while keeping in mind that he can only do so much and doesn’t want to end up looking silly in a language he doesn’t speak.”

For many locals, the language question outweighs even the soccer controversy. Even Modroño, the Barça fan who criticized the pope’s Real Madrid allegiance, says the failure to speak more Catalan is a bigger grievance. “It is a lack of respect not to speak entirely in Catalan,” he said.

In a high-stakes diplomatic visit that underscores continued regional and global support for Ukraine amid its ongoing full-scale war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, on Tuesday. Accompanied by First Lady Olena Zelenska, the trip centers on his participation in a gathering of Nordic and Baltic leaders hosted by Estonia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the NB8 cooperation bloc. The grouping brings together five Nordic nations and three Baltic states, with this session bringing together the bloc’s national prime ministers alongside Zelenskyy to address issues tied to the war. Estonia’s Foreign Ministry formally welcomed the first lady in an official post shared to the social platform X, marking the warm official reception for the Ukrainian delegation.

This visit unfolds against a backdrop of growing cross-border friction, as Ukrainian drones have repeatedly drifted into Baltic territory in recent months. The unintended incursions stem from Kyiv’s stepped-up campaign of strikes against Russian-controlled Baltic Sea ports that Moscow relies on for oil exports, a key part of Ukraine’s strategy to raise the economic pressure on the Kremlin for its invasion. Even as Zelenskyy holds diplomatic talks in Tallinn, deadly violence continues to unfold across Ukraine: Russian forces launched a massive wave of overnight airstrikes, sending 166 long-range attack drones and two precision-guided missiles toward Ukrainian targets. Ukraine’s Air Force reports that its air defense systems successfully intercepted and destroyed 146 of the inbound drones. On the ground, the human cost of the latest assault has been steep. In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov confirmed that three people were killed and 25 more, including three children, were wounded in Russian attacks over the preceding 24 hours. Further south, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, overnight strikes targeting multiple districts left three people injured, according to regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

The exchange of fire extended across the border into Russian territory as well. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its own air defenses downed 140 Ukrainian drones overnight. In Russia’s Belgorod region, local emergency officials confirmed one civilian woman was killed when a stray Ukrainian drone struck a residential apartment building.

Alongside Zelenskyy’s summit participation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also joined the delegation in Tallinn for bilateral talks with his Estonian counterpart, Margus Tsahkna. The two diplomats covered three core priorities: Ukraine’s ongoing security needs, new strategies to increase international pressure on Russia, and Kyiv’s progress in its bid to join the European Union. Tsahkna reaffirmed Estonia’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine in a post on X, writing, “Estonia will continue to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. As Putin intensifies his attacks and shows no sign of abandoning his imperial ambitions, our responsibility is to increase pressure, not offer concessions.” This stance aligns with comments Tsahkna made in May, when he confirmed Estonia’s full support for Ukraine’s EU accession process and called for the bloc to accelerate negotiations.

Ahead of his arrival in Estonia, Zelenskyy made headlines on Monday for unexpected talks with two U.S. envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, during a refueling stopover in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova. Zelenskyy described the discussions as positive, noting the talks centered on pathways to end the ongoing war. The Ukrainian leader added that the two sides explored diplomatic opportunities ahead of the upcoming Group of Seven summit scheduled for later this month, and that he shared Ukraine’s full intelligence assessment of Russian strategic intentions with the U.S. delegation.

On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV will embark on a landmark day of religious and cultural engagement during his seven-day trip to Spain, bringing together a millennium of Catholic heritage and modern global faith at two of Catalonia’s most iconic sites: the mountain-top medieval Benedictine monastery of Montserrat and Barcelona’s world-famous Sagrada Familia Basilica.

Nestled a short drive outside Barcelona atop a steep, rugged slope, Montserrat holds a deeply cherished place in the cultural and spiritual identity of Catalonia’s people. Each year, more than 2 million pilgrims and travelers journey to the 11th-century abbey complex, which also houses a 16th-century basilica and the revered Black Madonna statue. While historical analysis confirms the carving was originally white, centuries of exposure to candle smoke and incense darkened its surface before it was repainted black, cementing its status as a beloved symbol of faith for locals. For Catalans, Montserrat is far more than a religious site: it is a core pillar of regional culture, tied closely to efforts to preserve the Catalan language and centuries-old traditions. As Catalan theologian Francesc Torralba explained, many Catalans turn to the Black Madonna in times of hardship, calling the mountain a spiritual home for the region.

For global observers, however, the undisputed highlight of the Pope’s visit will be his evening Mass at the Sagrada Familia, held to mark 100 years since the death of the basilica’s visionary architect, Antoni Gaudí. During the trip, Pope Leo will deliver nearly all remarks in Spanish, with select addresses in Catalan, reflecting a careful balance of national and regional outreach.

Unlike most of Europe’s ancient cathedrals, the Sagrada Familia’s enduring global allure stems from its one-of-a-kind design and ongoing construction. Work first began on the site in 1882, during the papacy of Leo XIII — Pope Leo XIV’s namesake — and continues to this day, funded entirely by visitor entrance fees. Gaudí’s masterpiece blends natural imagery — from towering tree-like columns and carved birds to abundant fruit motifs — with narrative scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, creating a space that bridges 2,000 years of Christian history with modern and postmodern design sensibilities. As Ferran Sáez, a humanities professor at Barcelona’s University of Ramón Llull, notes, the building communicates complex theological ideas in an accessible way that resonates with believers and non-believers alike.

Today, the Sagrada Familia tops nearly every international traveler’s bucket list, with foreigners making up 90% of its annual visitor base — and more Americans visiting than Spanish nationals. Its recent completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ earned it the title of the world’s tallest church, drawing even more attention, and it has proven remarkably popular with adolescents and young adults, a stark contrast to the aging parishioner base of most traditional Spanish churches, at a time when the global Catholic Church is working to re-engage younger generations.

Pope Leo’s visit comes at a moment of profound religious shift in Spain, and particularly in Catalonia, one of the country’s most secular regions. Following Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 20th century, religious adherence has declined steadily: a 2024 state poll found just over half of Spaniards identify as Catholic, and only one in five of those are practicing believers. Unlike more religious regions of Spain such as Seville, Catalonia’s Catholic tradition is understated, focused on sacred sites rather than large public processions. In this context, the Pope’s dual visit to Montserrat and the Sagrada Familia represents a deliberate balancing act: upholding centuries of religious tradition in a rapidly secularizing society, while using the Sagrada Familia’s global profile to reach audiences far beyond Spain’s borders.

What many visitors and even locals do not know is that the two sites share a hidden historical connection. According to Mònica Santín, a tour guide, historian, and doctoral candidate researching Gaudí, the young architect got his early training working on a Montserrat chapel project for the original architect tapped to design the Sagrada Familia. When that architect’s neo-Gothic plan proved too costly to execute, the commission passed to Gaudí, who wove elements of Montserrat into his iconic design: the basilica’s distinctive soaring towers echo the jagged, spire-like rock formations of the Montserrat range, leading Santín to call the Sagrada Familia “a Montserrat in the middle of the city.”

For all its cultural and spiritual significance, the Sagrada Familia’s global fame has also created frictions. Many Barcelona residents blame the basilica’s popularity for worsening overtourism in the surrounding neighborhood: cruise ship day-trippers flood local streets, the area is dominated by chain fast-food outlets and souvenir shops, and tensions boiled over last year when water gun-wielding protesters targeting mass tourism were stopped by police before they could reach the basilica. Sagrada Familia rector Rev. Josep Turull acknowledges the inevitable friction between locals and tourists, but frames growing pains as an opportunity for improvement, noting the basilica works to ensure local parishioners still feel it is their spiritual home even as it welcomes millions of global visitors.

Basilica construction CEO Xavier Martínez projects that Pope Leo’s Mass will drive a similar surge in visits to the one that followed Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 consecration of the site, which boosted annual attendance from 3 million to nearly 5 million by 2025. While Santín secured a spot to see the Pope in person, she chose to join him at Montserrat rather than the Sagrada Familia, following in the footsteps of her grandmother, who made a barefoot pilgrimage to the mountain during the Spanish Civil War to pray for her husband’s safety. Even as she acknowledges the Sagrada Familia’s ability to move believers and non-believers alike, she joins many local residents in expressing concern that the Pope’s visit could push tourism levels to unsustainable heights for the Barcelona community.