Pope Leo XIV speaks out against femicides in front of 40,000 people in Barcelona

After presenting polarisation as one of the most serious problems facing Spain today in three of his speeches during his stay in Madrid and Barcelona, Pope Leo XIV tackled another of society's great scourges on Tuesday: femicides.

The supreme pontiff spoke at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, where he presided over a prayer vigil some 40,000 people attended. Switching naturally between Spanish and Catalan, he responded to the moving testimonies of three young women.

One of speakers comes from a very poor neighbourhood in Barcelona. When she was a child, her father tried to kill her mother. A boy intervened and saved her mother's life, but died in the act.

"My father went to prison and my mother became addicted to drugs," the young woman said, to which the Pope responded by denouncing the "poisoned climate of abuse and oppression in family relationships" that often "tragically lead to femicide".

Making an unusual appeal for the bishops of Rome, Robert Prevost said that they, as religious leaders, "are called to address this tragic reality", both individually and as a society. "It is up to us to confront it in all its dimensions. We cannot attribute to God what has been entrusted to our responsibility," he said.

His response was one of the most moving moments of an evening that began with a human tower performance. There were performances by music artists Beret, Sergio Dalma, Álvaro Soler and the Montserrat Choir, among others, alongside plenty of Catalan rumba music and a catechesis on the life and work of Antoni Gaudí, whose death marks its centenary this year.

Gaudí is one of the main reasons behind the Pope's visit to Barcelona. On Wednesday, he will preside over a historic mass at the Sagrada Família and inaugurate the Torre de Jesús, which has made the basilica the tallest church in the world.

During the prayer vigil, Pope Leo XIV received the largest crowds of his pontificate to date. Appearing increasingly at ease amid the masses, Leo XIV blessed several babies during his return in the popemobile inside the stadium and engaged in numerous gestures of connection with the public, who were deeply moved by his presence.

Before entering the stadium, he blessed a convoy of ambulances departing for Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid. Sister Lucia Caram, who once maintained a close relationship with Leo XIV's predecessor, Pope Francis, led the initiative.

In his conversation with young people, Pope Leo XIV addressed another important issue. After a young woman told him about her severe depression, which had led her to consider taking her own life, he stressed the importance of "becoming aware of how mental health is increasingly threatened in societies that consider themselves advanced".

He said this is "a sign that there is something profoundly wrong with a certain idea of growth that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise fundamental balances". For this reason, the Pope called for a healthcare system "that includes among its priorities this invisible and widespread malaise".

As he has done in almost all his speeches since arriving in Spain last Saturday, the Pope also urged those present to set aside their differences and seek the common good. "May this country be a welcoming place for all, where each person is respected in their dignity as a human being and loved for who they are," he said.