The show had not yet ended and everyone already had it clear that the blessing of the Sagrada Família's Jesus tower would be one of the images of the year. This Thursday, the front pages of the world's press certified it. As in the '92 Olympic Games, Barcelona once again showed itself splendid in a global ceremony. The day after the event, it was easy to overhear conversations everywhere about the impressive effect of the drones recreating the figure of Antoni Gaudí or the beauty of the light show. Comments that, often, oscillated between pride in the image offered and reservations about whether this could lead to an increase in tourism in the Catalan capital.

The choice of Catalan by the Pope on his visit to Montserrat is a very important gesture because of its "logic". In the monastery, there were groups of fervent people who made themselves heard a lot. The "jóvenes del Papa", who rhymed "León" with "mola mogollón" or the gentleman who shouted "¡Viva el Papa y viva la virgen!". Alongside this, the parishioner who tried a local "Visca sa santedat el Papa!", had a lot of merit, because Catalans – they know it urbi et orbi– are not so expansive.

“You can connect to Movistar Papa2, Movistar Papa3, or Montserrat Wifi,” a journalist from Regió 7 explains to me. It’s almost eleven, all the faithful who have managed to get a spot, after the paperwork, to see the Pope in Montserrat have been in their assigned places for hours. Cordoned off – if you’ll forgive the rough word that has been used, all these days of paperwork – by fences in different areas. We, the reporters, are in a press room, in the majordomo’s building, with an imposing balcony overlooking the square, with the mountain in the background. Impossible to maintain atheism here.

In Montserrat, the spiritual heart of Catalonia, Saint Ignatius of Loyola examined his sins to begin leading a life in God's service, abandoning the sword that had always accompanied him as a knight. With this reference and commending himself to La Moreneta, Pope Leo XIV made a strong plea for peace this Wednesday in a turbulent world. "May hatred give way to hope and peace," he stated from inside the basilica after the rosary prayer presided over by himself. But he also had a message in favor of immigration when he finished his speech: "Thank you, Catalonia, for having welcomed so many people from other countries, because you teach how to integrate everyone into a single family," he said from the outside, in line with what he had defended on Tuesday at the Lluís Companys Stadium.

The day has arrived. Pope Leo XIV landed this Tuesday in Catalonia and in his first homily from Barcelona Cathedral, he has already made several parts in Catalan. Beyond starting and closing in the country's language, he has delivered entire paragraphs, although the use of Spanish has been predominant – a language he knows well and which marked his life as a bishop in Peru. The pontiff stated that "Barcelona is called the capital of Catalonia" and spiced up the claim with the fact that this gives "Barcelonians and Catalans" a "special vocation" to become "builders of unity".

Admired Rosa Romà, president of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, which everyone knows as the Corpo:

Pope Leo XIV, who will visit us soon, has appointed prefect of the dicastery of communication: which is what would be the head of press for heavenly affairs. Hold the mares: she is a woman and she is lay. If it is already difficult to have directors of conventional newspapers, imagine having one in the Vatican. She is the first, therefore, to lead a papal office, in the midst of that – and forgive me all and even all – immaculate turnip field. When Garrofa, from Pitarra's Pastorets, returns from hell, he says: “I can tell you wonders...! / The demons are female.” This informs us of what it means for a woman to lead Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media (audio, image, and video services), the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican Printing Press, and the Vatican Film Library. And here I go, after an elegant and even feminine full stop.

The climber who was in critical condition after being hit by several stones on Saturday while on a route in Montserrat has died this Tuesday at Bellvitge Hospital, as reported by La Vanguardia and confirmed by the ACN. The deceased was accompanied by a man, both 30 years old, who died the day after the accident at Vall d'Hebron Hospital. The Montserrat Mountain Patronage has preemptively closed five climbing routes in the Columpi sector after the fatal accident, as there is an accumulation of stones in the area with a high risk of falling.

One of the two climbers who was in critical condition after being hit by several rocks on Saturday while climbing a route in Montserrat has died, according to sources from the hospital where he was admitted, Vall d'Hebron, to the ACN.

What should we do about death? We experience it intensely. It's a constant presence in the news. Ukraine, Gaza... and closer to home. It has a tragic face—wars and climate disasters—and an everyday face—old age, illness. It will come to us all. It's something natural, intertwined with the mystery of life. I ponder this as, having moved past the noise of the millennium celebrations, I climb Montserrat, where this three-way connection—nature, life, and death—becomes even more apparent. A thousand years of history, of intertwined human stories, as if we were passing the torch, with the whimsical and imposing rock formations as witnesses.

On Monday night, TV3 and Canal 33 counterprogrammed with two documentary offerings. On the one hand, the second season of [title of documentary] premiered. The great illusionThe documentary series about the history of Catalan cinema. The first season, directed by Àlex Gorina and Esteve Riambau, premiered in January 2019. Fortunately, the program's tagline is accurate: it's an "intermittent narrative." In this new season, the first two interviewees have sadly passed away. Actress Marisa Paredes and director Josep Maria Forn died in 2024 and 2021, respectively. The series may have been tucked away in a drawer for some time and was perhaps retrieved due to an emergency. The program strives to maintain the magical and meticulously crafted visual style of its beginnings and remains a very good format both visually and in terms of content. The script always prioritizes the social and political context to emphasize that Catalan cinema is not an isolated phenomenon, and, when appropriate, it knows how to connect the past with the present. It has an informative spirit but never descends into a tedious encyclopedic narrative nor does it operate solely through chronological inertia. The new season begins in the 1960s, in the midst of the dictatorship. The narration of actor Francesc Orella guides us through the country, in a kind of road movie which showcases Catalonia as a location for international film shoots. The series skillfully incorporates film clips and magnificent archival footage, and above all, highlights key figures in Catalan cinema. The great illusion It's more than just a program: it's a theoretical corpus worth organizing and immortalizing.

The Portuguese poet, humanist, and writer Francisco Botelho de Morais e Vasconcelos (1670-1747) must have thought it wiser to hide his support for the Austrian cause during the War of the Spanish Succession. To conceal any evidence, he removed about 200 octaves, about twenty pages of sensitive political and biographical information from the epic poem. The New World (1701), which features Christopher Columbus.

The storm of intense rainfall in Catalonia has caused the death of a child aged approximately 11 or 12 and the disappearance of his father in Sant Quintí de Mediona, in the Alt Penedès region, after the car they were traveling in was swept away by a stream. The child's body was found a few minutes before 10 p.m. in the Bitlles River, in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles. "Based on the evidence we have from the police investigation, it is the child's father," said the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, who appeared before the media from Sant Quintí de Mediona. Parlon explained that the man tried to cross a watery crossing despite warnings from neighbors not to do so: "They told him not to cross, but he did." The sudden rise in water swept away the car, which became stuck in a playground.

Abbot Emeritus Sebastià Bardolet died this Tuesday at the age of 91, the Montserrat Abbey announced in a statement. "During his years of monastic life, he carried out various services within the community, as prefect of the Montserrat Choir from 1968 to 1977 and prior of the abbey from 1978 to 1989," the abbey noted.

The Visit of King Felipe VI to Montserrat still brewing in some sectors of the independence movement, but several actors in the movement remain in tune with the abbey. Some are grateful for the latest gestures, which have turned the page on the complex situation derived from the invitation to the Spanish monarchy at the monastery's millennium events—after the royal family wanted to be present. In any case, more than two months after the event with the head of state, the abbey has now held a reception for the Catalan nationalist. Canigó Award from the Catalan Summer University (UCE), in which the abbot, Manel Gasch, spoke of "Catalan Countries." Gasch also He met with former President Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo. this week, and He sent a message to the PP and the rest of the European Parliament., with the demand for the use of Catalan in the European Union, as "part of the identity" of the continent, within an exhibition on the monastery's millennium in which he implicitly rowed for official status in the EU. Has there been a Catalanist redemption of Montserrat?

Montserrat Abbey received the Canigó Prize this Thursday, awarded by the Catalan Summer University (UCE) in recognition of its thousand-year history, inseparable from that of Catalonia. But both the award ceremony and the presentation of the prize, which was received by Father Abbot Manel Gasch, were marked by a profound change. due to the controversial participation of Felipe VI at the millennium celebration event, which unleashed an earthquake within Catalan Catholicism. During the ceremony, Gasch had to listen to several calls for Montserrat to continue being "the spiritual refuge," the "center of cultural resistance," and the "common home" of the Països Catalans. These were the words used by the Archbishop of Tarragona and president of the Tarragona Episcopal Conference, Joan Planellas, in his speech to the audience.

You don't need a ticket to Iceland or a rocket to Mars. This summer you can travel to another planet without leaving Catalonia and discover places that seem otherworldly. We're talking about places that don't fit the typical postcard, neither the gentle green of the Pyrenees, nor the Mediterranean gold of the coves of the Empordà. They are spaces that seem to have emerged from a dream, a fairy tale, or a distant planet. And yet, they are right here, close to home.

What has become of the Catalan Church at the end of the last century? To mention just a few of those who are no longer with us, I'm talking about the Church of Bishops Pont i Gol, Deig, Camprodon, Guix, and Carrera. Of Archbishop Torrella and Cardinal Jubany. I'm talking about that Church of the Totosaus and the Alcaldes. Of the Huguets. Of the Marquises, Vilanova and Raguer, monks of Montserrat. And I'm not lying to the laity so as not to turn the entire article into a list of names.

The visit of the Spanish monarchs to Montserrat to commemorate the abbey's millennium has attracted the attention of the Spanish media, especially due to the tension with the pro-independence protesters. Public mirror They reveled in the images of the confrontation with the Mossos d'Esquadra and Puigdemont's tweet criticizing the event. The Griso commentators compared it to the people who demonstrated at the Valley of the Fallen and lamented its supposed ultra-orthodoxy. A testament to the collaborators' knowledge. On Telecinco, Ana Rosa Quintana looked disgusted when she saw the images of the protesters: "What were the King and Queen doing there?" she asked indignantly. "The issue is increasingly tense," the presenter concluded, appealing to a catastrophic drift. Cristina Cifuentes replied: "It's the last straw that the King and Queen of Spain can't visit a part of Spain."

Unlike Lluís Llach, I believe very well that the Spanish monarchs went to Montserrat. No, no, please, readers! Wait! Don't rush to unsubscribe! Don't upset our editor this way! Let me explain!