In Barcelona, Junts and ERC are pressing Catalan president Salvador Illa to make sure Catalan has a proper place in official events during Pope Leo XIV’s visit next week. The parties say the language should not be sidelined in a visit with major public visibility across Catalonia.

Mònica Sales, Junts’ parliamentary president, sent a formal letter to Illa saying, “We are not asking for any concession or favour; we are simply defending our language, as any nation does, and the government must be exemplary and the first to act.” Elisenda Alamany, ERC’s secretary general, also posted on X that Catalan authorities must work to ensure the Pope respects the society that will host him and its language.

The concern centres on reports that the planned missal for the visit gives Catalan only a minimal role. According to those reports, the blessing of the Sagrada Família’s Jesus Christ tower, one of the key moments of the trip, would be carried out entirely in Castilian Spanish.

Sales said the situation is especially sensitive because of the Sagrada Família and its architect, Antoni Gaudí. She pointed to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2010, when the dedication of the basilica included numerous texts and rites in Catalan, and said the comparison shows that “instead of moving forward, we have gone backwards”.

Junts also noted that the visit coincides with the centenary of Gaudí’s death. Sales described Gaudí as “a person deeply rooted in the country and Catalan identity” and said it is painful that Catalan, “the language the architect of light always defended”, does not have the presence it deserves in the ceremony.

Sales said the defence of Catalan must be done every day and in all situations, and argued that a visit with a large audience should be used to promote the language. She has asked Illa to speak with the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Barcelona’s Cardinal Joan Josep Omella, and the Holy See to secure a presence for Catalan that matches its legal recognition across the mass, the blessing of the Sagrada Família’s Jesus Christ tower, and other official events. More Catalonia news