Pope addresses Spanish Parliament, urges respect for dignity of every human person
June 08, 2026
Pope Leo XIV addressed the Spanish Parliament this morning in the Palacio de las Cortes and urged lawmakers to respect the dignity of every human person in their decisions about the unborn, parental rights, migration, peace, religious freedom, and the seal of Confession.
The Pontiff’s 30-minute address to the Cortes Generales (video), which received a standing ovation, was his first public event of June 8, the third day of his apostolic journey to Spain. Prior to the address, Pope Leo celebrated Mass privately in the apostolic nunciature and met privately with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
In his address to lawmakers, Pope Leo said that “every legislative task ultimately confronts a decisive question: what conception of the human person inspires laws, and what kind of society do those laws build?”
Recalling the legacy of the School of Salamanca in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Pope Leo said that the school “helped to shape a legal and moral consciousness capable of remembering that authority always entails responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties.”
“In the face of the transformations of our time, our discernment must focus on the place of the human person in our decision making and on how the dignity of work, solidarity, social policy and the common good are today being addressed in new ways,” the Pope continued. “This discernment begins with a fundamental affirmation: every truly just society is built upon the recognition of the inviolable dignity of the human person.”
In this context, Pope Leo said that it
falls to me today to speak a calm and firm word to those who bear the grave responsibility of legally ordering social coexistence. This coexistence can be threatened by the throwaway culture, as Pope Francis so often warned. In this sense, if life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have? Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?
The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization. Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person. For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile.
After emphasizing the defense of human life, Pope Leo discussed the common good, the dignity of migrants, and the family, “the primary human reality and the natural foundation of the community.”
“Where the family is upheld, the spiritual and social stability of nations is also strengthened,” the Pope said, as he recalled the “primary and inalienable right” to parental choice in education. “The family will always be the first school of humanity, where one learns, before anywhere else, the basic grammar of living together: welcoming life, caring for others, forgiving, serving and belonging.”
Pope Leo also spoke about domestic polarization, international peace, “freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” and the legitimate autonomy of the temporal order.
“Faith does not seek to impose itself through privileges or coercion; yet neither can it be silenced as if it were irrelevant to public life,” he said. “In this context, the sacramental seal of confession holds special importance for the Catholic Church. It is part of the broader sphere of religious freedom, which guarantees believing communities their own space for life, organization and internal discipline.”
The Pontiff concluded:
May this noble nation never lose sight of its roots nor the courage to look to the future. May Spain continue to be a land of encounter, of culture, of solidarity and of hope. And may its public life always know how to unite the firmness of convictions with the nobility of dialogue and the greatness of service.
May God grant peace to all nations of the earth, harmony to families and serenity to consciences. And may days of prosperity, justice and lasting peace descend upon the Kingdom of Spain, marked by the apostolic footprint of Saint James and by the maternal presence of Our Lady of the Pillar. Thank you very much.
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Further information:
- Apostolic Journey to Spain: Meeting with Members of the Spanish Parliament at the Congress of Deputies (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 6/8/26)
- Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to Spain (6 – 12 June 2026) – Meeting with members of the Spanish Parliament at the “Palacio de las Cortes” (Holy See Press Office, 6/8/26)
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