Catalan president meets Pope in private and thanks him for his 'sensitivity' towards Catalonia

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, accompanied by his wife, met this afternoon with Pope Leo XIV in a private audience at the Episcopal Palace.

According to sources from the presidency department, Illa welcomed him to Catalonia and thanked him for his visit and his "sensitivity" towards the region.

During the meeting, they discussed current global affairs and the messages of the latest encyclical, such as Leo XIV's defence of putting technological advances at the service of humanity.

They also valued the figure of Antoni Gaudí and the importance of the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ of the Sagrada Família.

This is the second meeting between Illa and Leo XIV. The first was last October at the Vatican, when the president invited him to visit Catalonia.

During the meeting on Tuesday in Barcelona, ​​Illa gave the Pope three gifts: a reproduction of Organyà's Homilies, a reproduction of the articulated doll from the early Christian necropolis of Tarraco, and a copy of the notarial act of laying the first stone of the Sagrada Família.

According to Vatican sources, the meeting lasted about 15 minutes.