Joseph Wilson

Pope Leo XIV found himself in the midst of Spain's two classic culture wars as he landed in Barcelona on Tuesday during his weeklong visit to the country.

Spain's Catholic bishops agreed Thursday to let the Spanish government's ombudsman have the final say in the church's compensation of victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted.

"The sweat, the foot pain, the blisters, the hunger, they help you understand little by little that ultimately it doesn't all depend on you. There is something else that carries you forward," Fr. Josep Lluís Iriberri says.

Spain’s Catholic bishops approved Tuesday a plan to compensate the victims of sexual abuse inside the Church whose alleged aggressors have died or whose possible crimes have been proscribed, an initiative the government and victims’ associations called lacking in real guarantees.

A machete-wielding man killed a sexton and injured a priest at two Catholic churches in the city of Algeciras on Jan. 25 before being arrested, Spain’s interior ministry said. Authorities are investigating the attacks as a possible act of terrorism.

Spain's prime minister wants to task the nation's ombudsman with the country's first official investigation into the depth of sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic clergy.

Meeting with friends, dining out, worshiping and other daily routines have nearly halted as nations take drastic steps to try to stop the coronavirus pandemic.