Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain

By Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder since 1974

When the cruel and vindictive King Herod ruled Judea more than two thousand years ago, he had all boys 2 years old and younger in Bethlehem slaughtered, in an attempt to eliminate the baby Jesus, whom he saw as a threat to his power. Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus to Egypt, where they were welcomed and took refuge until Herod died some years later, after which they returned home to Nazareth.

This episode in the life of Jesus of Nazareth highlighted the Christian value of respecting the rights and dignity of migrants, which have been honored since. The visit of Pope Leo XIV to Spain this past week reinforced this important value. It came as the country’s socialist-led government has shown solidarity and respect for displaced people by regularizing the status of more than 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers there.

This stands at odds with the policies of the other European countries and the United States that reject and mistreat such people. The prevailing political climate across Europe has shifted significantly to the right, viewing irregular migration as threats, and migrants as potential criminals and unwanted persons. Their policy is one of deterrence, attempting to block migrants from entering, rather than accept, support and help migrants integrate, like what Spain has done. Mainstream European governments, such as those in Germany and France, have tightened residency laws and slashed their quotas for refugee resettlement, making legalization almost impossible. In the United Kingdom, the government has tried to deport migrants to an African country willing to accept them for money. The European Union heavily funds North African countries, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, to intercept migrants before they ever reach European shores.

This is what Pope Leo spoke out against. In an address to Spain’s parliament — which later received a seven-minute standing ovation — he told legislators that countries had a moral duty to accept and protect migrants. “The tragic drama of migration … challenges the conscience of nations and the ethical foundation of the international order,” he said. “Numerous men, women, and children are forced, often by dramatic circumstances, to leave their communities and abandon loved ones, their histories, and their connections.”

The “universal principle of the equal dignity of all human beings,” he added, was violated if people found themselves discriminated against “because of their national, ethnic, religious or linguistic origin, or because of their economic or social status.”

The pope also pointed out the divisions in societies throughout the world, especially in Europe, where racism and anti-migrant sentiment posed grave challenges, even threats, to migrants escaping oppression, persecution and dire poverty in their respective homelands and seeking freedom and a new life in Europe. Migration opponents have spoken against migrants in Spain, demanding their deportation. But Spain respects the rights of migrants and helps them achieve economic integration, provided that they have a clean record. The country sees them as a hidden workforce that pays taxes and has chosen a pragmatic and humanitarian approach. Through a historic royal decree, Spain launched an extraordinary regularization process between April and June 2026.

The Filipino migrant diaspora is one of the largest in the world. Approximately 15 million Filipinos are living outside the Philippines. The Philippine Statistics Authority estimates that 2.19 million of our countrymen are working abroad as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on temporary contracts. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Filipinos live in Spain, and every year, approximately 2,000 of them become Spanish citizens after only two years of legal residency.

Integrated community

It’s not surprising that Filipinos are considered the most integrated immigrant community in Spain. The Philippines was once a Spanish colony. Spain introduced Catholicism to the country. Our national hero, Dr. José Rizal, had profound intellectual, personal, and political connections to Spain. He traveled secretly to the country in 1882 to finish his education. He attended the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning degrees in medicine, philosophy and literature. His writings, especially his novels, were considered subversive. After he returned to the Philippines, the Spanish colonial government had him executed on Dec. 30, 1896, by a firing squad of Filipino troops, backed by Spanish soldiers, at Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park) in Manila. His execution ignited the Philippine Revolution against Spain.

Pope Leo XIV challenged politicians and society to evaluate their morals by how they protect the most fragile of people. He said safeguarding human life from “conception to its natural end” is a fundamental goal of civilization, and not a partisan issue. He challenged Spain to provide safe legal pathways and respectful integration for migrants. He also challenged the international community to fix the root causes of poverty, violence, and climate change so that “no one has to leave their home due to a lack of peace.”

Spain is a most secularized society; only an estimated 9 million people are practicing Catholics out of a total population of 49.69 million. About 1 million attended Pope Leo’s Mass in Madrid. Leo spoke about the right to life since abortion and euthanasia are completely legal and regulated by law in Spain, and the services are part of the Spanish health care system.

“All human life must be recognized and protected from conception to natural death, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable become the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person,” he said.

“Therefore, the moral greatness of a nation is shown, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect, and love those lives that are most fragile,” he added.

He also had much to say about clerical child abuse in Spain. A landmark 2023 report by Spain’s national ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, used an extensive public poll to project that 0.6 percent of Spain’s adult population — roughly 200,000 — were abused by clergy. That figure jumps to 400,000 (1.13 percent) when it includes lay staff at Church-run schools and institutions. The Spanish Church said in June it had discovered 927 cases of clerical child abuse through a complaints procedure launched in 2020. There are almost no convictions of clerical child abusers, as more than 60 percent of the accused clerics are already dead, and the Spanish statute of limitations has prevented legal actions against the abusers.

Pope Leo had this to say about it: “Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.”

“Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing,” he said.

With these words, he could be talking to the Philippine clergy, as well.