In brief
The 172.5‑metre Jesus Christ tower, topped by a 17‑metre glass cross from Bavarian firm Gartner, makes the Sagrada Familia the highest church on Earth, surpassing the Ulm Minster.
The mass was held exactly 100 years after architect Antoni Gaudí's death; the pope prayed at his tomb and the Vatican is considering his beatification.
Leo XIV declared that Christians cannot support war, in a thinly veiled criticism of the US administration, and urged solidarity with migrants.
About 4,000 worshippers attended inside the basilica, while tens of thousands lined the streets; the earlier Madrid mass drew 1.5 million.
Construction began in 1882; interior lifts and finishes on the tower are still being installed, with full completion expected in the 2030s.
The Sagrada Familia event was the centrepiece of a Spanish visit that included an address to parliament, a prison visit, and prayers at Montserrat.
- April 2025The Vatican declares Gaudí 'venerable', advancing his beatification cause.
- February 2026Jesus Christ tower completed, making the Sagrada Familia the world's tallest church.
- 2035Full completion of the basilica expected.
A sacred milestone in stone
Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Jesus Christ tower of the Sagrada Familia on Wednesday evening, formally lifting Barcelona's soaring basilica above Germany's Ulm Minster as the highest church in the world. The 172.5-metre tower, capped with a 17-metre glass cross fabricated by Bavaria's Gartner GmbH, was consecrated before a congregation of 4,000 inside the basilica while tens of thousands more lined the surrounding streets of the Eixample district. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia greeted the pontiff at the façade, and a young blind girl presented him with a scale model of the tower ahead of the rite.
“We cannot believe in Jesus and promote war.... We cannot believe in Jesus and kill the innocent.”
Gaudí's legacy after a century
The liturgy fell on the exact centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death. The architect was struck by a tram on 10 June 1926 while walking to church and died shortly after. Before the mass, Leo XIV prayed at Gaudí's tomb in the crypt; later he recalled that Gaudí conceived the tower's height so it would never surpass the 173-metre Montjuïc hill, a deliberate deference to divine creation. The Vatican declared Gaudí a "venerable servant of God" in April 2025, advancing his cause for beatification.
A political homily in sacred space
During his homily, the American-born pope used the basilica's pulpit to issue an unvarnished condemnation of war, a remark widely read as directed at the Trump White House. He also insisted that Christians could not "abandon those who flee from misery," coupling the anti‑war message with an appeal on migration. The dual message echoed themes that have marked Leo's young papacy.
An architectural jigsaw approaching completion
Construction on the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 and is still under way; the Jesus Christ tower was finished only in February after years of painstaking engineering based on Gaudí's century‑old sketches. Inside, an all‑glass panoramic elevator and decorative finishes are still being installed, according to project architect Mauricio Cortés. The basilica attracted almost five million paying visitors last year, making it Spain's most visited paid‑entry monument.
“To be involved with a church or cathedral is naturally something very special. We were allowed to put the little dot on the 'i' at the top.”
A week of pilgrimage across Spain
The Sagrada Familia ceremony capped a six‑day Spanish tour for Leo XIV. He had earlier addressed the Madrid parliament — a first for any pope — and led an open‑air mass in the capital that drew 1.5 million people. On Wednesday, before reaching the basilica, he visited prisoners at Brians 1 jail and prayed at the Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, where he addressed the faithful in both Spanish and Catalan. The trip, his first to an EU country outside Italy, continues with a two‑day stop in the Canary Islands.