Survey assesses impact of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain
Survey of over 5,000 participants in Spain found 97% had a positive or very positive view of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands from June 6–12. The visit increased knowledge about the pope, reducing those with limited prior knowledge from 57% to 14%, and strengthened participants' desire to help, deepen faith, and commit to the Church. Key messages that resonated most were the importance of prayer, living faith with joy, serving others, and building peace through dialogue. Digital engagement was high: 91% read or listened to content about the visit, 89% shared photos and videos via WhatsApp, and 55% used Instagram to follow related content.
2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV’s six‑day apostolic visit to Spain (June 6‑12 2026) was overwhelmingly positively received, with a post‑visit survey of more than 5,000 participants showing a 97 % favorable rating and notable shifts in knowledge, emotions, personal commitments, and digital activity 1 2
The Spanish Bishops’ Conference commissioned an online survey conducted by GAD3, targeting registered participants and volunteers of the papal journey 1.
Before the visit, 57 % of respondents said they knew little about Leo XIV’s biography and message; after the visit this fell to 14 % 2.
Respondents most frequently reported feelings of joy, enthusiasm, hope, peace, unity, spiritual connection, and pride during the papal events 1.
The survey identified the four most impactful messages:
Least highlighted messages included the value of volunteering (1 %), dialogue between faith, culture, and art (2 %), and welcoming migrants and vulnerable people (7 %) 1.
Participants reported new personal commitments:
Additional resolutions involved increased prayer (27 %) and greater parish or community involvement (11 %) 1.
The surveyed group comprised 39 % men and 61 % women, with an average age of 36; 22 % of event attendees were under 18 2.
Assess how papal visits shape faith, engagement, and peace dialogue
Papal visits tend to shape Catholic faith, public engagement, and peace dialogue in a way that is not merely “symbolic,” but ecclesial and pastoral: they confirm the people in communion, draw them into worship and mission, and publicly model dialogue that aims at reconciliation and peace.
Across recent papal teaching and addresses, a papal journey is consistently presented as an expression of the Successor of Peter’s service to the whole Church—confirming faith, encouraging unity, and promoting dialogue suited to the situation of the visited country.
In the account of his Apostolic Journey to Spain, Pope Leo XIV frames the visit as something where the faithful are “welcomed everywhere with enthusiasm and readiness to listen,” and where, as Bishop of Rome, he “encouraged them to overcome every form of division and conflict by always promoting communion, dialogue and unity in diversity.”
That triad—communion, dialogue, unity in diversity—is a useful lens for assessing how visits affect three areas you asked about: faith, engagement, and peace dialogue.
In Spain, the Pope observes that the widespread welcome signals “a widespread need to find unity based on a true and deep foundation… which, ultimately, can only be ensured by Christ.” He then links this to Gospel proclamation and inculturation—the process by which the Gospel takes root in a culture so that faith becomes lived and intelligible.
This matters because faith is portrayed not as an abstract opinion but as a “foundation” capable of resisting ideological or partial interests.
Pope Leo XIV emphasizes that he was not only giving messages but listening to testimonies—especially those involving children, victims of abuse, inmates, young people with anxiety, and migrants. This places faith in contact with concrete suffering and hope, suggesting that the Gospel’s credibility is shown through attention, listening, and pastoral closeness.
When earlier popes describe the effect of papal presence, they consistently connect it with worship and the Church’s communion, rooted in the Eucharist. John Paul II calls the Church’s communal dimension “vividly illustrated by her worship and sacramental life,” stressing the Council’s goal of “full, conscious and active participation” in the liturgy and the importance of “eagerly frequent[ing] those sacraments… instituted to nourish the Christian life.”
While your question is about papal visits (not only local liturgy), this teaching gives the theological logic: visits strengthen faith most when they are visibly integrated into worship that forms Christians as a united people.
Pope Leo XIV notes that in Spain people were “welcomed everywhere” with “enthusiasm and readiness to listen,” and he interprets the crowds as evidence of a need for unity grounded in Christ rather than ideology.
Engagement here means more than attendance. It means people are prompted to participate in the Church’s dialogue with contemporary life and its questions (truth, justice, human dignity, integral development).
In his address at a cultural/sport/economy arena in Spain, the Pope argues that the Church remains in dialogue with the contemporary world and that “openness to dialogue is an integral part of the Church’s vocation.”
He also underlines a practical criterion: communication is not neutral—language and media can “wound or heal… sow division or awaken hope.” This implies that papal visits can raise the quality of public moral discourse by modeling speech that aims at human dignity and the common good.
John Paul II’s remarks about ecclesial unity (including his discussion of “communion” as an ecclesial reality connected to the Eucharist) provide a deeper account of why visits can mobilize engagement: they remind local Churches that they share one faith and one mission, receiving and giving through exchange.
Pope Leo XIV’s greeting to young people on a Mediterranean “boat” (as a sign of hope) frames dialogue in concrete behavioral terms: “learn to talk to one another… sit down, to learn, to listen… with respect for one another so that other people will feel that they are truly being listened to.”
He then interprets this as bridge-building among people of many nations and cultures, grounded in shared human dignity.
To a working group on intercultural and interreligious dialogue, Pope Leo XIV describes being “men and women of dialogue” as remaining “deeply rooted in the Gospel… cultivating openness, listening and dialogue with those who come from other backgrounds,” keeping human dignity and relational life at the center.
He also distinguishes a “healthy secularism” that affirms religion’s value without confusing religion and political power: “the distinction — not separation or confusion — from the political sphere.”
In his message for an Ecumenical Week, Pope Leo XIV highlights the idea that unity can be lived even amid theological difference when Christians act together in “practical Christianity”—service “in the pursuit of peace, justice and human dignity.”
He also explicitly ties Christian unity to reconciliation and peace as a “sign of the Lord’s presence,” calling followers of Christ to become “artisans of reconciliation: to confront division with courage… and to bring healing where there has been hurt.”
In Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV describes peacemaking as involving reconciliation on the “arduous path,” including the healing of wounds and “memories” that may take years. He states: “Truth and reconciliation only ever grow together,” and insists there can be no lasting reconciliation without a common goal oriented to the common good.
Crucially, he adds that reconciliation is not merely “from below” (the willingness of a few) but also needs institutions that recognize the common good as superior to particular interests.
Earlier papal teaching makes the same point in strongly moral terms. John Paul II, in Sarajevo, calls the Successor of Peter a “pilgrim of peace, reconciliation and communion” and teaches that God “forgives only those who have the courage, in turn, to forgive others,” presenting forgiveness as the beginning of the way toward true peace.
Pope Francis, speaking of Colombia, argues that reconciliation cannot be abstract or “sterile,” and that those who overcome vengeance become credible protagonists for building peace.
He also warns against reconciliation used to legitimize injustice: “Recourse to real reconciliation cannot merely serve to accommodate unjust situations.”
Across the sources, the strongest pattern is integrated pastoral action:
The peace-dialogue dimension repeatedly emphasizes that peace requires more than a moment:
So, papal visits can catalyze attention and hope, but their lasting peace effects depend on continued local commitments to reconciliation, justice, and communion.
Papal visits shape faith by anchoring unity in Christ, deepening worship-centered communion, and translating the Gospel into attentive listening to real human lives.
They shape engagement by drawing people into shared meaning—often through cultural dialogue—and by strengthening participation as mission within the Church’s communion.
They advance peace dialogue by modeling a concrete method of dialogue (listening, respect, bridge-building), fostering ecumenical and interreligious cooperation in the service of peace and human dignity, and grounding reconciliation in truth, forgiveness, and the common good over time.