(OSV News) — Despite minor setbacks, including the last-minute thwarting of a separatist demonstration and the grounding of the papal flight to Rome, organizers said Pope Leo XIV’s weeklong visit to Spain was an overwhelming success.
At a June 16 press conference in Madrid, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, admitted that “the visit has overwhelmed us in our expectations and in what we have lived.”
“The trip had a heart, which was seeing the evangelization of the Church in action. It was an apostolic journey in which the Word was proclaimed, the liturgy was celebrated, and the charity of the Church was exalted with harmony in the various places where the visit took place,” Archbishop Argüello said.
An estimated 2.5 million participants
The Spanish prelate was joined by the organizers of the visit: Yago de la Cierva and Fernando Giménez Barriocanal. According to the organizers, the papal visit drew an estimated 2.5 million participants across Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
The organizers also revealed that although the total financial cost of the visit was about 26 million euros ($30.1 million), initial assessments of its economic impact are expected to surpass 150 million euros ($174 million).
According to Giménez, the Madrid region conducted a recent study estimating the economic impact just for the region alone at 120 million euros ($139.2 million), “which allowed us to project the total impact of the visit.”
However, the organizer also noted that while the trip has had a positive economic impact on the country, its spiritual impact has been immeasurable.
‘Common good made by Holy Father’
“There are still no metrics to evaluate all the contributions to the common good made by the Holy Father, which undoubtedly result in a social benefit that is not measured in the GDP. The Holy Father also spoke about this in his speeches, and they undoubtedly have great value,” Giménez said.
Archbishop Argüello also provided details on how authorities thwarted an attempted demonstration by a group of choir members sympathetic to the Catalan independence movement.
According to the Spanish newspaper Diari de Catalunya, police removed dozens of choir members who planned to disrupt the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10.
Archbishop Argüello said the would-be demonstrators had swapped out music folders containing the lone star flag of the Catalan separatist movement, known as the “Estelada.”
Protest plans by rogue choir members
Once in position, the rogue choir members planned to unfurl the flag, shout for independence, and sing the Catalan national anthem, “Els Segadors” (“The Reapers”) in front of the pope and King Felipe VI of Spain, the archbishop explained.
“Some members of the choir were the ones who alerted (authorities) over the situation,” Archbishop Argüello said, adding that the police operation was done so discreetly that no one realized what had happened until after the event.
The organizers also commented on the mechanical failure that grounded the papal flight back to Rome June 12 and prompted King Felipe to offer Pope Leo a ride home aboard his royal Falcon jet.
Although the pope departed several hours later than scheduled, journalists and Vatican personnel traveling aboard the papal flight were forced to remain in Tenerife awaiting a replacement flight, arriving in Rome in the early morning hours the following day.
No customary in-flight press conference
Due to the change in aircraft, the pope was unable to hold his customary in-flight press conference with journalists.
“Iberia has compensated all the journalists who arrived very late and, above all, who lost the opportunity that all reporters look forward to at the end of the trip, which is the press conference, which is something priceless,” de la Cierva said.
Engineers, he said, were given a 30-minute window to check whether repairs could be made and ultimately decided that the plane wasn’t suitable for flight.
Nevertheless, de la Cierva praised Iberia for putting the safety of the pope and the passengers aboard the papal flight above all.
“If they had to tell the pope, ‘We can’t fly,’ it seems to me like (it deserves) a ‘chapeau bas’ (‘a tip of the hat’) to put the most important thing of the trip first, which is safety,” he said.
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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