Spain has been one of the nations that has most frequently welcomed the last pontiffs. Since the beginning of the custom of papal trips, With St. John Paul II, Spain has received John Paul II and Benedict XVI on 8 occasions in total, in different cities and for different reasons, including two World Youth Days.
John Paul II: 5 visits
The custom of papal trips, it should be remembered, began with St. John Paul II. The Polish Pope visited Spain on 5 occasions: in 1982 with a 10-day trip in which the pontiff visited places such as Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Zaragoza, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
In 1984, the Polish Pope landed in Spain for an almost «express» visit before continuing his apostolic journey to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to inaugurate the novena in preparation for the V Centenary of the evangelization of America. On this occasion, Zaragoza was the Pope's host city and there he prayed before the Virgin of Pilar.
Seven years later, in 1989, St. John Paul II celebrated the IV World Youth Day. It was a trip in which the Pope made the last stage of the Way of St. James on foot, entering the cathedral as a pilgrim of honor and fulfilling the traditional rite of touching the mullion of the Portico de la Gloria. There he presided over the vigil on Monte del Gozo and the central mass of the WYD. In Covadonga, at the feet of the «Santina», one of the most memorable visits of a Pope to Spain would end.
The next visit of John Paul II was in 1993. It was a trip in which the Pope visited southern Spain in a special way to celebrate the V Centenary of the evangelization of America. On this occasion, the pontiff closed the XLV International Eucharistic Congress in Seville, and also visited Huelva and Madrid.
The last trip of Pope Wojtyla to Spain was in 2003 and, during that visit, the Pontiff canonized Pedro Poveda, José María Rubio, Genoveva Torres, Ángela de la Cruz and María Maravillas de Jesús. During those days, the Cuatro Vientos air base was the scene of the last meeting of the Polish pope with young Spaniards.
Benedict XVI: 3 major events
Benedict XVI was in Spain three times as Supreme Pontiff.
The first time was on the occasion of the closing of the V World Meeting of Families. The Valencian capital welcomed more than one million people who accompanied the Bavarian Pope on that occasion. Benedict XVI He would return to Spain four years later, in 2010, on the occasion of the Compostela Holy Year and the consecration of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
In 2011, Madrid hosted the World Youth Day presided over by Joseph Ratzinger. An event that brought together nearly two million young people from all over the world and that left iconic images such as the Pontiff praying with the young people in the midst of a strong summer storm and a gale that hit the venue.
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