Pope calls for an end to 'divisive narratives' in the world, says he prefers Real Madrid to Barcelona on visit to Spain

Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives at Madrid airport for a visit to Spain, on June 6, 2026.
Yara Nardi/ Reuters
Pope Leo
The request from the pontiff, who at the beginning of the year clashed with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, was made on the first day of the pontiff's visit to Spain. The pope's trip is centered on the European migration issue, which has divided and dominated the public debate on the continent.
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Before arriving in the European country, however, the pope was asked, on his plane, whether he prefers Real Madrid or Barcelona, the two main football clubs in Spain.
"The pope is for all teams, but Prevost is for Real Madrid", revealed the pontiff in reference to his real name, Robert Prevost.
The pope also praised Spain's "active commitment to peace" and "fidelity to international law" - recently, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also clashed with Trump when he condemned the war in Iran. The pontiff himself, who is from the United States, was harshly criticized by the American president for his anti-war position.
In Madrid, without referring to Trump, Leo XIV lamented that the message of peace "In these times, unfortunately, it resonates with some as naive and with others as provocative."
After being welcomed at the Royal Palace in Madrid this morning, the pope will end the day with a prayer vigil near Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu stadium, which is expected to bring together around 400,000 faithful. On Sunday, he plans to gather a million faithful at a mass in Cibeles Square, in the center of Madrid.
The 'open wound' of abuse
"It is not in my interest to argue with Trump", says pope
During the flight to Madrid, the pontiff addressed yet another major point of his trip: sexual abuse within the Church, with whose victims he plans to meet in these days.
"Abuse is still an open wound", said Leo XIV to journalists in the papal delegation.
The King of Spain, Felipe VI, hailed the pope's "clarity and firmness" in the face of sexual abuse, as he welcomed him to the Royal Palace in Madrid. The Spanish Public Defender's Office assessed, in a report published in 2023, that, since 1940, more than 200,000 minors could have suffered attacks by Catholic clergy.
The Sánchez government and the Spanish Church signed, at the end of March, an agreement to compensate victims of sexual crimes, after years of reticence and nebulousness on the part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Although religious practice has declined considerably in this historic stronghold of Catholicism in Europe, the pontiff has several multitudinous acts on his agenda.
On the plane, Leo pope. And that says something", he said, with a smile, in reference to the Puerto Rican singer, who is performing these days in Madrid
Tribute to migrants
On Monday, Leo in the highest church in the world.
The next day, the pope will fly to the Canary Islands archipelago, located in front of the African coast and the main entry point for irregular migrants in Spain.
Alongside Pedro Sánchez, he will meet with migrants and make an offering of flowers in honor of the thousands of migrants killed on the dangerous crossing trying to reach Europe.
Unlike other neighboring countries, the Sánchez Government recently promoted a broad plan of regularization of undocumented migrants, which should normalize the situation of half a million people, the majority of whom are Latin American.
The measure drew strong criticism from the conservative Popular Party and Vox, the third political force in the country.
For the visit of the 70-year-old pontiff, around 15,000 personnel from the National Police and the Civil Guard were mobilized.
This is his first trip to a European Union country outside of Italy and the first by a pontiff to Spain since that of Benedict XVI, in 2011.
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Source: G1