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.

After a weekend of diverse popular emotions (the burial of Pope Francis, the Barça wins the Cup in the Seville final and the Montserrat procession), this morning the harsh reality returns in the form of three important decisions.

"The Black Madonna is something for everyone," she says, "whether religious or not." The rack railway carriage we're in, which is now moving to get to Montserrat before ten, is full of journalists. She, in fact, is Montserrat Esteve, the director of the religious program on 3Cat. Signs of the timesThis Montserrat (one of the few Montserrats that exist today) explains to us—to us, because everyone in the car, including the politician Jordi Turull, who sits in the back, already knows—what will happen today at the top of the mountain. "Today they're taking the Virgin out in procession, and it will be one of the three times she has been in procession, the first of the century." They'll take her out on a bayard, and she'll circle the square, near the devotees who've already reserved seats days ago. We arrive with the mountain covered in fog, only the spires visible.