This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the members of the Junta Constructora of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Spain.

The following is the Pope’s greeting to those present:

Greeting of the Holy Father

Dear brothers and sisters,

Esteemed members of the “Junta Constructora” of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família of Barcelona, I am pleased to receive you together with your families, in this year which, as I have repeated on several occasions, I wish to dedicate to prayer, thus preparing for the 2025 Jubilee. An entire year in prayer for this. It is important that the climate of prayer is not lost in temples; it must be a priority for those who, like you, have received the responsibility for the care of temples.

You have certainly noticed that the Basilica of the Sagrada Família is structured in such a way that every portico has a theme, illustrated by passages from the Scripture and framed by a prayer. Thus, the first door, that of faith, behind the image of Jesus who preaches to the doctors, shows us the holy Trisagion. Preached faith must become prayer. Always.

The central door of charity, whose main figure is precisely that of the Holy Family, invites us to raise our eyes to the mystery of the Incarnation and from there, to pray the beads of the rosary that descends along the stained-glass windows, framing the star of Bethlehem, almost as if to say: “here is our light”. And it is precisely in adoration, in the contemplative prayer of the mysteries, that we open ourselves to that light, like the great stained-glass window of your temple.

I therefore invite you to welcome in the Basilica the pilgrims who approach, to introduced them with a prayerful attitude to contemplate the iconographic project of the servant of God Antoni Gaudí in its entirety, so that, like the pinnacles and bell-towers, their gazes rise and their voices proclaim with the angels: “Our Holy God is Immortal”. Thank you for everything you do, thank you. God bless you.