Pope Leo blesses new tower at Spain’s Sagrada Familia

Pope Leo on Wednesday blessed a giant new tower at Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia Basilica after celebrating mass inside what is now the world’s tallest church.

A choir of 600 singers performed at the service which lasted around 90 minutes and was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.

The stained-glass windows in various colours shone brightly in between the treelike columns of the temple as Leo delivered his homily in Spanish, Catalan and Latin

“We cannot believe in Jesus and promote war. We cannot believe in Jesus and kill the innocent,” the pope said in a thinly veiled reference to US President Donald Trump’s administration.

At the end of the service, the US-born pontiff blessed the Sagrada Familia’s soaring central Jesus Christ tower which was completed in February, bringing the basilica to its maximum height of 172.5 metres (566 feet).

The peak deliberately falls short of the 177 metres (581 feet) of Barcelona’s Montjuic hill – an act of religious respect from Gaudi who believed the hill was the work of God.