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Following a row over the language Pope Leo XIV would speak during his trip to Barcelona, a cardinal has confirmed that the pope will incorporate Catalan into his visit.
After days of uproar – particularly after the publication of a Vatican missal indicating that the blessing of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Familia would be conducted in Spanish – on Thursday Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, reassured people that the pope will also speak Catalan during his trip.
“He is a man sensitive to languages, and he will speak in the language of the country, which is a language we love very much,” the cardinal said, referring to Catalan.
“The Pope knows he has to speak something in Catalan. But there are people who like to stir up controversy, and this must be avoided,” he added.
Omella confirmed that the blessing ceremony will mainly be in Spanish but that the pope “will say a few words in Catalan”, while confirming that the Vatican has taken into account the linguistic tensions of Catalonia from “the very beginning.”
“We live in a very polarized and tense society, and bonfires are being lit everywhere,” Omella also said.
The Tower of Jesus Christ
The row started earlier this week when the Holy See released the missal for the celebration of the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Familia and it became apparent that the blessing of the tower would be in Spanish, a language the pope is fluent in.
Shortly afterwards, the leader of nationalist pro-independence party Aliança Catalana, Silvia Orriols, publicly announced that she was withdrawing from the event “out of respect for Gaudí and Catalonia.”
“As a member of parliament, I had requested to attend the blessing of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Familia, but after learning that it will be conducted in Spanish, I am withdrawing,” she wrote on social media.
Jordi Fàbrega, member of parliament for Catalan independence party Junts, also took to social media to criticize the news.
“Absolute contempt for Gaudí and for Catalonia,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “If Gaudí could rise from the grave, the temple wouldn’t be blessed. If Catalonia had a Catalan government, it wouldn’t either.”
Carles Puigdemont, former president of Catalonia and leader of Junts, also slammed the news and accused Omella of having “national-Catholic delusions.”
“If the government that claims to govern ‘for everyone’ says it cannot negotiate to uphold the rights of Catalan speakers, then it also has no obligation to contribute public funds to an institution that humiliates us in order to satisfy Omella’s national-Catholic delusions,” he said.
However, there were some people who felt the controversy was unfair to the pope.
Father Faustin John Mlelwa, of the parish of San Agustín in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood, where the Pontiff will meet social organizations, charities, and more, on June 10 defended the use of Spanish during the trip.
“One cannot learn a language in a day; besides, we are in Spain, and when someone comes to Spain, we all know that the national language is Spanish,” he stated in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio.
Ignacio Garriga, secretary general of far-right party Vox and regional deputy in Catalonia, accused “separatist parties” of “unacceptable” interference, and remarked that “we did not see them nearly as concerned about controlling which language was used in the mosques, public facilities, and squares where Eid al-Adha was recently celebrated.”
The Tower of Jesus Christ is the tallest part of the Sagrada Familia and stands at 172.5 metres, meaning the famous basilica is now the tallest church in the world.
