The Abbot of Montserrat, Manel Gasch, has defended that the Benedictine monastery continues to be a place where many pilgrims and visitors discover the Christian faith through silence, beauty, liturgy and music.
In an interview given to Revista Ecclesia, Gasch reflected on the spiritual role of Montserrat ahead of the upcoming visit of Leo XIV, scheduled during the Pope’s apostolic journey to Spain, which will include a stop at the Catalan abbey on June 10.
Montserrat, between sanctuary, monastery and Catalan identity
Gasch stressed that Montserrat is not only a Marian sanctuary, but also a monastic community with a thousand years of history. According to him, the Pope will find there “the Marian witness” of a place that is, at the same time, monastery, sanctuary and Christian reference point of Catalonia.
The abbot recalled that Montserrat has just celebrated its millennium and highlighted that the community maintains its Benedictine mission of prayer, welcome and guardianship of devotion to the Virgin.
“There is a thirst to discover the Christian faith”
One of the most relevant points of the interview is the observation that many people distant from the Church continue to arrive at Montserrat with religious questions.
Gasch spoke of people of faith, seekers, former Catholics nostalgic for tradition, and also of “religious illiterates” who are surprised by the beauty and depth of Christianity.
“The reality is that there is a thirst to discover the Christian faith,” the abbot stated, before adding that “people continue to find God through silence, beauty and good music”.
Beauty as a path of evangelization
The abbot defended that beauty continues to play a fundamental role in today’s evangelization. In the case of Montserrat, he especially highlighted the liturgy and the Escolanía, a musical tradition with more than 700 years of history.
Faced with a society dominated by immediacy and hedonism, Gasch maintained that faith requires time, process and depth. Monastic life, he explained, precisely offers that witness of stability and patient seeking of God.
The challenge of not reducing Montserrat to tourism
Gasch acknowledged that Montserrat has become an international sanctuary, with 60% foreign visitors. That growth, he noted, requires maintaining the balance between tourism and the pastoral welcome of those who arrive for religious reasons.
The abbot insisted that Montserrat must continue to show that it is, above all, a monastery where the Rule of Saint Benedict is lived, and not merely a cultural or tourist symbol of Catalonia.
Leo XIV will visit a diverse Catalan Church
Asked about the Pope’s upcoming visit, Gasch stated that Montserrat will allow Leo XIV to encounter a Catalan Church different from the strictly urban one of Barcelona. In his view, the combination of Montserrat, the Sagrada Família and other events of the trip seeks to unite different symbols: modernity, devotion, history and identity.
The abbot summarized the message he would like to convey to every pilgrim who arrives at Montserrat: “Christ is the salvation of the world, and he came to it through Mary.”