Pope Leo XIV departs Catalonia after two-day visit 

Pope Leo XIV departed Catalonia on Thursday morning after a two-day visit marked by large crowds and repeated calls for unity, peace and solidarity.

Before boarding his flight to the Canary Islands from Barcelona-El Prat Airport, the pontiff was bid farewell by Catalan President Salvador Illa, who later praised the Pope's messages on migration, tolerance and social justice.

Illa said Leo XIV's visit had been "inspiring" and thanked him for his "sensitivity" to Catalonia and "its reality," as well as for reaffirming "the values of humanism" and a "tolerant, open, diverse and welcoming society."

Catalan featured prominently throughout the trip, both during the Pope's speeches and in his greetings to the faithful.

Illa also defended his government's handling of the visit, saying it had respected "the principles of a secular state" while recognising the Pope's dual role as head of state and leader of the Catholic Church.

The high point of the visit came at Barcelona's Sagrada Família, where Leo XIV presided over a mass marking the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death and blessed the basilica's newly completed Tower of Jesus.

As night fell, the blessing was accompanied by a large-scale visual display and drone show that projected Gaudí’s silhouette into the Barcelona sky, drawing thousands of spectators around the basilica.

The Pope also prayed at Barcelona Cathedral, addressed nearly 40,000 people at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium, visited Brians 1 prison – becoming the first pontiff to visit a prison in Spain – and travelled to Montserrat, where he thanked Catalonia for welcoming people from other countries and said such openness showed how to integrate everyone into "one family."

Illa said the visit demonstrated that "Catalonia once again matters in Europe and the world."

The president also welcomed the Pope's "calm, clear and explicit" message on migration, saying they were values with which he personally identified.