Pope Leo's Successful Apostolic Journey to Spain:
Popular Piety and Orthodoxy, Yes. Partisan Progressivism, No.
Under Francis, papal trips became increasingly politicized and seemed to be aimed at pushing progressive politics. They could also seem tone-deaf. The Spanish Socialist prime minister Sánchez seemed to be hoping — or even expecting — that Pope Leo's visit to Spain would be similar to Francis's visit to the USA in 2016. If he did, he was proven wrong.
Sánchez's government is a minority coalition consisting of Socialists and even Communists that receives support from Catalan separatists, among other controversial groups. Sánchez has pursued many contentious policies in recent years, including trying to outlaw right-wing views regarding the Spanish Civil War — which has resulted in him being accused of opening old wounds for political purposes. Corruption scandals have led to calls for his resignation and early elections, including by Spanish bishops. Meanwhile, far-right opposition party Vox is surging in the polls — a party that strongly supports Church teachings on life and family issues, but which has clashed with bishops over migration policies.
All of this made Pope Leo's visit even more politically sensitive than usual.
Peace and the Common Good
It was initially expected that Leo would speak of social issues along with migration in a way that would be welcome to Sánchez. However, when it came to social issues, little was said that was provocative or progressive. Pope Leo spoke of care for the poor and other themes from his encyclical, but these were so generic and general — with a focus on the common good — that they were not socialist-leaning at all. He did not rail against inequality, nor call on the state to curb the market.
In the end, there were only two topics on which Pope Leo could be viewed as strongly supportive of the Sánchez government: peace and migration. Pope Leo's call for peace was to be expected. He has been highly critical of the war in Iran in recent months, and it is a topic on which he and the Spanish government are in full agreement. As expected, Pope Leo championed multilateralism and peace talks during his journey.
Similar agreement was anticipated on migration, but this turned out to be more nuanced.
Migration: A Mixed Bag
Pope Leo did not mention migration in his first address to civil society, possibly to ensure it would not dominate his apostolic journey from beginning to end. He did not even make it a topic when meeting some migrants at a Caritas center. He ended up addressing it first as part of his speech to Spain's Congress.
The issue is particularly sensitive in Spain because Sánchez's government regularized roughly half a million undocumented immigrants by decree just a few months ago. The regularization was for the most part not actually about Africans or Muslims, or about refugees who came to Spain, but about illegal economic migrants from Latin America. These migrants are generally Spanish speakers, often Catholic, not necessarily politically left-leaning — some are strongly anti-Socialist — and unlikely to travel to other parts of Europe. The opposition of the right is centered more on issues of law and order than on anti-Islamic or anti-replacement politics as in many other European countries. The Spanish bishops, including conservative ones like Archbishop Argüello García, supported this move by Sánchez, much to the anger of the right. Leo did not touch this issue, not even indirectly.
Pope Leo's address dealt entirely with those forced to migrate, primarily focusing on victims of war. While he did also speak of forced migration based on other causes, he was not describing economic migrants, and many Latin American undocumented workers are unlikely to satisfy that description in any way. Leo's address was focused on the refugee crisis.
On the refugee issue itself, Leo was slightly left-leaning — as was to be expected — but also once again more measured than Francis would have been. He continued the approach of both pushing for safe and legal routes and welcome for forced migrants, while also emphasizing that the root causes must be addressed so that people no longer need to leave in the first place, and that human traffickers are a major part of the problem.
Pope Leo notably doubled down on the issue of human trafficking during his visit to the Canary Islands, calling traffickers monsters and warning refugees not to be misled by them. He called on Europe to address the problem humanely, but also on transit countries to prevent human trafficking. Even more significantly, he specifically called on the countries of origin to address the root causes. This was part of a broader tonal shift from Leo: an emphasis on the right not to migrate rather than a right to migrate. Pope Leo in fact affirmed a right to migrate only when "one's life is in danger," rather than merely to seek a better life for oneself or one's family.
This shift in focus is real and substantial compared to Francis. Criticism of human trafficking has been central to right-wing opposition to mass migration for over a decade. It was a concern raised by Cardinal Erdő in 2015, when he suggested that taking in illegal migrants could amount to facilitating human trafficking.
The biggest question Pope Leo's words raise is whether they constitute an endorsement of the European Migration Pact, a criticism of it, or a subtle correction. He called for an international response — which the pact provides. He called for not merely managing migration flows but tackling threats such as human trafficking — which the pact also addresses.
However, the pact also aims to limit migration to Europe as much as possible and to ensure that refugees can be received in other countries in Africa instead. Pope Leo called for safe and legal routes for genuine refugees but did not specify to where. His appeal to Europe's conscience was vague about exactly whom they should receive. Some ambiguities therefore remain.
Defense of Life and the Family
Beyond peace and arguably migration, Pope Leo's speech to Congress ended up quite explicitly siding with the right against the Socialists on many controversial topics that are currently being fought over in Spain. Leo addressed several bioethical issues head-on in a way that firmly aligned with far-right party Vox against the Socialists and Communists.
The Socialist-Communist government in Spain has recently been pushing for Spain to become the third country in the world to constitutionally enshrine a right to abortion. They have also been pushing to expand access to euthanasia. Pope Leo condemned both, speaking of the importance of protecting human life from conception to natural death. He presented this not as a partisan or religious issue, but as a matter of civilization. This double intervention fits a growing pattern for Pope Leo. He visited Monaco and encouraged its pro-life tradition while a debate was raging there over the full legalization of abortion, and he will visit France later this year. He is visiting European countries that Francis ignored, and has actively intervened on abortion in Europe at moments when Francis would have downplayed the issue in favor of progressive talking points.
Leo likewise defended the right to freedom of religion and of conscience — not just during his speech to Congress but also when addressing civil society at the start of his visit. This is highly topical, since Sánchez's government has also been pressuring doctors who object to abortion, and conscientious objection has become a divisive issue in Spain.
Beyond the bioethical sphere, Pope Leo upheld the family as the basis for society. He also emphasized the importance of parental rights, specifically in education. This is another highly polarizing issue in Spain, where the Socialist party is responsible for the current legal ban on homeschooling, while Vox has pushed for the right to parental opt-outs for controversial courses including sex education.
Abortion, euthanasia, the family, freedom of education, and freedom of conscience were five issues on which Pope Leo openly sided with the conservative opposition against Sánchez. One reliable source consulted for this piece had predicted that Leo would condemn abortion, yet was somewhat surprised at how far he went on the other topics. He upheld limits to the authority of democratic majorities, treating natural law as a binding and constraining principle.
Religion, Tradition, and the History Wars
Another key stance of Leo was that he repeatedly called on Spain to respect and continue to draw inspiration from its Catholic heritage — a message at odds with the secularist Sánchez, who does not even bother with the pretense of being a personally devout Catholic, and yet another issue on which his stance is virtually indistinguishable from Vox's.
Along with his defense of freedom of religion, Pope Leo explicitly upheld the seal of confession, likely pre-empting attempts by progressives to use sexual abuse scandals as a pretext to violate it. With this, Leo once again demonstrated that he was not going to hide behind generalities or platitudes.
Pope Leo also tackled the historical memory wars in Spain — and there too he sided against the left. The Socialists and Communists in Spain still reject the mainstream historical view, accepted generally worldwide, that the Second Spanish Republic was not a genuine democracy, that Communists were threatening to take over, and that Francoism was not Fascism. Instead, they continue to portray their predecessors as democrats who fought an unprovoked fascist coup. As part of this narrative, they passed the Democratic Memory Law in 2022 in an attempt to ban opposing views on the Civil War, and are currently trying to outlaw the Franco Foundation on the basis of that law.
Pope Leo first addressed the matter during his speech to civil society after arriving in Madrid:
"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… Appreciating and studying complexity, learning not to deny it but to embrace it as a blessing, and fleeing from identity-based approaches that seem to explain everything yet only fill the world with 'ghosts' and enemies are the tasks of those who are heirs of a great history."
Certain leftist media briefly tried to frame this as an attack on the far right as well, focusing on the word "identitarian" — but this is not very plausible. Not only did Leo speak of identitarian methods rather than groups, ideologies, or movements, but identitarianism does not carry the same well-known rightist association in Spain as it does in France, Germany, or the United States. Vox is not identitarian; there are only a handful of extremely minor self-described identitarian groups in Spain, and those are often Catalan and anti-Spanish. Chauvinistic left-wing nationalism is exceptionally influential in Spain, particularly at present. The reference to simplifying history, which immediately precedes the passage about identity-based approaches, should have made the context clear. An obsession with tribalism and with ghosts — such as the ghost of Francisco Franco — is unusually strong among the Spanish left.
Any ambiguity was resolved by Leo during his address to Congress, when he again referenced Spain's history:
"In this context, peace emerges as a political aspiration and, even more so, as a true moral imperative. It calls for public discourse that respects those who think differently, institutions dedicated to fostering dialogue, a historical memory that seeks truth and reconciliation, and a social life capable of sustaining civic friendship and mutual respect amid disagreement."
The reference to a historical memory that seeks truth and reconciliation serves as a direct contrast to the simplified narratives that Leo had previously rejected.
Another interesting statement by the Pope — which some people misunderstood — was his reference to positive encounters amid confrontations during the period when part of Spain was occupied by Muslims. He praised how the School of Translators, supported by King Alfonso X, engaged in interreligious studies of Islamic and Jewish philosophers, including Maimonides and Averroes. This was misrepresented as Leo endorsing the myth of a tolerant Islamic Al-Andalus, when in reality he was praising the relative tolerance of a king who fought Islamic occupiers during the Reconquista.
Furthermore, Pope Leo praised Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo as one of his personal inspirations when addressing Spanish Catholic youth — this despite the fact that Turibius had served as Grand Inquisitor and never renounced the work he carried out in that role.
Pope Leo and Popular Piety
Beyond all the political, historical, and ethical issues, this apostolic journey represented a clear turn away from 1960s modernism toward a more traditional popular piety. Pope Leo wore traditional vestments, heads of state bowed to him, the queen had her hair covered, and Leo praised Spain's historic architecture and art. He carried the monstrance himself through the streets during the Corpus Christi procession.
Pope Leo even explicitly encouraged Christians who work with refugees — often Muslims — to share the faith in Christ with them. He invoked Our Lady of the Pillar despite certain groups having deemed this a "fascist dog whistle," and he praised the historic School of Salamanca, which developed human rights theories based on a renewed application of Thomism and natural law theory — a tradition held in high regard by conservatives and right-wing libertarians alike — demonstrating the depth of his historical and intellectual knowledge.
Overall, this apostolic journey shows that we once again have a Pope who cares about and respects Europe. Pope Leo is able to balance navigating polarizing politics with affirming Catholic orthodoxy, honoring traditional devotions, and encouraging the faith among the young — even if some of his political stances might be seen as somewhat naive.
