Pope Leo XIV urged Spaniards on Saturday to stop "fanning the flames of polarization" as he arrived in Spain at a moment of political turmoil for the Socialist-led government and a credibility crisis for the Catholic Church. The American pope, who has Spanish ancestors, traveled to Spain dozens of times as a priest, but this is the first visit by a
Pope Leo XIV's trip to Spain will bring the American pontiff to a traditional center of European Christianity, where the Catholic Church has a complex legacy and the Socialist-led government is in the midst of a political crisis. Leo's weeklong visit begins Saturday in Madrid with a welcome by the country's Catholic monarchs, King Felipe VI and Queen
Pope Leo XIV is delving into the hotly contested issue of migration by visiting two flashpoints - Spain's Canary Islands in the Atlantic next week, and Italy's Lampedusa island in the Mediterranean in early July. These rocky, remote outposts of Europe have struggled with the arrival of tens of thousands of mostly African migrants through some of the