{"id":2228784,"date":"2026-01-09T19:47:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T19:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2228784"},"modified":"2026-01-09T19:47:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T19:47:48","slug":"king-felipe-and-queen-letizia-could-be-the-first-royals-to-take-on-a-big-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/king-felipe-and-queen-letizia-could-be-the-first-royals-to-take-on-a-big-role\/","title":{"rendered":"King Felipe and Queen Letizia could be the first royals to take on a big role"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

King Felipe and Queen Letizia are set to be the first royals to
\nwelcome Pope Leo on a visit to their home country.<\/p>\n

The Pope is expected to travel to Spain this summer for a visit
\nthat would take him to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary
\nIslands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the islands, in particular, are important to Leo
\nXIV to see as he wants to spend time in areas that are seen as
\nhotspots for immigration.<\/p>\n

Since his election as Pope in May 2025, Leo has spoken several
\ntimes on immigration and urged reflection and contemplation to see
\nmigrants as \u2018brothers and sisters\u2019 rather than as problems to the
\ncountries where they arrive.<\/p>\n

\n
\"King
King Felipe and Queen
\nLetizia meet with Pope Leo XIV at his papal inauguration on 18 May
\n2025 (\u00a9 Casa de S.M. el Rey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The visit to Spain was revealed by Cardinal Jos\u00e9 Cobo Cano, the
\nArchbishop of Madrid, who said plans were under way for
\narrangements following a meeting with a top Vatican official.<\/p>\n

Reports that the Papal visit to Spain could be in June haven\u2019t
\nbeen confirmed with Cardinal Cobo saying timings were still being
\ndecided.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood that the visit could also see a visit to the
\nSagrada Familia church in Barcelona \u2013 its architect, Antonio Gaudi,
\ndied in 1926 and is now considered a potential candidate for
\nbeatification.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Pope\"Pope
Pope Leo welcomed King
\nCharles and Queen Camilla to the Vatican last year
(Royal Family\/ Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

It would be the first papal visit to Spain since 2011, when Pope
\nBenedict XVI spent several days in the country. That was during the
\nreign of Felipe\u2019s father, King Juan Carlos. This would be the first
\ntime that King Felipe has hosted a papal visit.<\/p>\n

King Felipe and Queen Letizia met Pope Leo during his
\ninauguration Mass which they attended alongside royalty from around
\nEurope.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis never visited Spain during his time as Pontiff but
\nis understood to have been keen to travel to the Canary Islands to
\nshow support for migrants.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo\u2019s first foreign trip following his election was to
\nT\u00fcrkiye and Lebanon in November 2025. During that visit, he said a
\npotential journey to Spain was \u201dmore than a hope\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before becoming Pope, Leo XIV had strong ties with South
\nAmerica, spending many years as a priest in Peru. It\u2019s been
\nreported that the Pope is hoping to return to the country soon.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

King Felipe and Queen Letizia are set to be the first royals to welcome Pope Leo on a visit to their home country. The Pope is expected to travel to Spain this summer for a visit that would take him to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. It\u2019s understood the islands, in particular, are important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2228785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/King-Felipe-and-Queen-Letizia-could-be-the-first-royals.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228786,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228784\/revisions\/2228786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2228785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}