Spain is getting ready for the first visit of a Pope since 2011, when Benedict XVI came for World Youth Day (WYD). Pope Francis never visited Spain, but Pope Leo XVI will do at the start of his second year as pontiff: it will be between June 6 and June 12, and will visit Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife, with a schedule focused on youth, family, and migration (shortly after, on July 4, he will visit the island of Lampedusa, Italy, one of the most contentious entry points for illegal immigration from North Africa.
Among the events scheduled for Pope, there's a historic speech in the Spanish Congress of Deputies on June 8, a visit to the Brians Prison in Barcelona on June 10, a mass at the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona and the Almudena cathedral in Madrid, as well as masses in big spaces, like the Movistar Arena and Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, the Olympic Stadium Lluís Companys.
His visit to Canary Islands on June 11 and 12 will have several meetings in the harbours and migration centres, including an encounter with the realities of migrant integration in the Plaza del Cristo de La Laguna.
Leo XVI will be the third Pope to visit Spain. John Paul II visited Spain five times between 1982 and 2003.