On Wednesday, October 1, León XIV received in a private audience the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa i Roca, accompanied by his delegation. As is customary, the Vatican did not provide details about the content of the meeting.
Illa’s statements
After the meeting, Salvador Illa assured on his official X account that he had conveyed to the Pope his “concern about global conflicts” and the need to have “moral referents” that address current changes from a “humanist” perspective and respectful of human rights, coexistence, and dialogue.
In a second message, Illa highlighted that he explained to the Pontiff “the situation in Catalonia”, referring to the Millennium of Montserrat and to “the importance of Montserrat in Catalan social and civic life”. Additionally, he announced that he had invited the Pope to visit Catalonia in 2026.
A PSOE probe on the Valley of the Fallen?
Beyond the official version, the audience has sparked speculation about whether Illa may also have acted as an emissary of Pedro Sánchez’s socialist Government. The issue of the Valley of the Fallen, which has become a central axis of historical memory policy, remains open: after Franco’s exhumation, the Executive has promoted new measures to transform the Benedictine abbey into a “re-signified” space.
It would not be strange if, under the discretion of a private audience, an attempt had been made to gauge the Holy See’s disposition regarding the future of the Valley, a topic in which the presence of the Benedictine community and the protection of places of worship have generated frictions between the Spanish Government and Rome.