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BARCELONA, Spain — Pope Leo XIV offered his formal blessing Wednesday to the highest spire of what is now the world’s tallest church, holding Mass at the iconic Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
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The event, the highlight of a weeklong trip to Spain for Leo, comes 144 years after construction on the unfinished modernist basilica began and 100 years since the death of its famous architect, Antoni Gaudí.
Standing 566 feet high and crowned with a five-story ceramic cross, the central Tower of Jesus Christ is the highest of 18 adorning the Sagrada Família, a bucket-list item for most travelers to the city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region.
Leo’s visit commemorates the legacy of Gaudí, whose radical, modernist designs were mocked in his lifetime but have subsequently been celebrated. Gaudí took over the construction of Sagrada Família in 1883, a year after the first cornerstone was laid during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII.
“We are all the living stones of this edifice,” Leo said from the altar of the basilica.
Spain’s King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were among thousands inside the Sagrada Família on Wednesday as Leo lit a candle at Gaudí’s grave and led the Mass.
His work was far from finished when Gaudí, a devout Catholic, was hit by a tram and killed in June 1926, at age 73, having devoted 43 years of his life to the basilica, which one century later is now finally inching toward completion.
Dubbed “God’s architect” for his devotion, he designed some of Spain’s most famous religious sites and tourist attractions, and he was put on the path to sainthood when Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, declared him “venerable” in recognition of his “heroic virtues” last year.
There is “a miracle that is currently being studied, and we hope he will be beatified this year,” José Manuel Almuzara, the president of the Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí, told NBC News.
The ceremony also marks the contribution of the generations of artisans whose work is at last fully visible as the final cranes and scaffolding are peeled from the basilica’s exterior. Among those buoyed by Leo’s visit were father and son ceramicists Toni and Guillem Cumella, who used thousands of intricate 3D ceramic tiles to adorn the imposing cross atop the tower.
Their painstakingly designed tiles ensure the cross reflects the sunlight at “every moment of the day,” Guillem told NBC News. “It’s like a jigsaw,” he said.
He said Leo’s visit was a “magical sensation” and a “very special moment” for their family, which has worked in ceramics for five generations.
The Mass featured musicians and choirs from around Catalonia, an autonomous region known for its distinct language, culture and independent identity, where there are vocal voices in favor of independence from Spain.
The event drew a massive crowd: Local authorities said there were 9,000 people in the basilica and 120,000 outside. And there was a true sense of spectacle as lights illuminated different parts of Sagrada Família at one point during the ceremony and drones formed an image of Gaudí in the sky beside it.
Earlier Wednesday, not far from the soaring towers, Leo was in less grand surroundings as he addressed prisoners at one of Spain’s largest penitentiaries. A person’s past “does not condemn the future but rather offers the possibility of changing our decisions and choices,” he told them.
Leo, the first American pope, has recently clashed with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran and immigration, issues he has highlighted on this tour of the predominantly Catholic nation.
On the first papal trip to Spain in 15 years, Leo has warned that escalating conflicts have pushed the world into a profound crisis.
On Monday, he became the first pope to address the Spanish Parliament, telling lawmakers that a lack of help for the world’s migrants was challenging “the ethical foundation of the international order.”
Leo, a citizen of Peru as well as the U.S., spoke in fluent Spanish at a vast outdoor Mass in Madrid on Sunday that organizers said 1.5 million people attended.
In Barcelona, he also made some comments in Catalan, the predominant language in the region.
On the final leg of his trip, he will visit the Canary Islands on Friday to meet with African migrants who made the dangerous journey to reach Spanish territory by boat. More than 3,000 people died attempting the journey last year, according to Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish humanitarian group.
Christianity is receding in Spain, which underwent a religious crisis in the late 20th century during its return to democracy. One in 5 people polled by Spain’s opinion agency in 2024 called themselves practicing Catholics.
But the people of Barcelona may have little choice but to adhere to the pope’s motto for the trip — “Alzad la mirada,” or “lift up your eyes” — as they gaze up at the towering church that dominates the city’s skyline.
The Rev. Joby Sebastian Kappipparambil said in an interview Tuesday that he thought the tower would elevate “their response to the daily sufferings and struggles” and that looking at the cross would bring salvation.
In the near future, they may also pray to a Saint Antoni Gaudí.
Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.
Molly Hunter is a London-based correspondent for NBC News.
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