Pope warns of growing mental health crisis, domestic violence at Barcelona Vigil

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday spoke about depression and domestic violence after hearing dramatic personal testimonies from young people at a prayer vigil in Barcelona.

After a woman who tried to commit suicide told her story, the pope said public health systems should prioritise tackling the "invisible and widespread malaise" in mental health.

"It is important to recognise how mental health is increasingly threatened in the context of societies that consider themselves advanced," the pope said.

"There is something deeply wrong with a certain notion of progress that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise healthy balances."

The pope was speaking on day four of his visit to Spain, where he has already held an open-air mass with 1.5 million people in Madrid and given an unprecedented address to the Spanish parliament.

On Wednesday, he is due to to bless the huge new central tower of the famous Sagrada Familia Basilica and hold a mass in the church, now the world's tallest.

During Tuesday's prayer vigil, the pope was also questioned by a young woman who said her father had tried to kill her mother who then turned to drugs.

The pope spoke of "a toxic climate in family relationships marked by abuse and oppression and, in partcular, by violence against women, which unfortunately often leads to femicide".

"We are all called to address this dramatic reality, both personally and as a society," he said.

'Value what is important'

The pope also urged young people to "learn to pause and value what is important", denouncing "a social system that does not put people first and creates situations of injustice and existential poverty".

Earlier on Tuesday, he visited Barcelona's Gothic cathedral, where excited worshippers gathered hours in advance amid tight security conditions.

Religious observance has been declining for decades in Spain, a traditional bastion of Catholicism, but Roberto Crespo believed the pope would enjoy a "very warm" welcome in Barcelona.

"I think the people will show that there is more faith and more Catholicism than people generally think," the 44-year-old carpenter told AFP.

At events in Barcelona, the pope mixed Spanish and Catalan, prompting applause every time he switched to Catalan.

The pope will then travel to the Canary Islands on Thursday and Friday, where he will meet migrants and the volunteers helping them, as well as pay tribute to those who die trying to reach the Atlantic archipelago.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)