Pope Leo is back in Vatican City after a whirlwind trip to Spain, but Catholics are still poring over the many moments that stirred hearts during his six-day trip, including the captivating conversations he had with children. 

Here are five moments to relive again and again. 

1. Soccer, Papacy, Poverty: Pope Leo Responds to a Child's Letter

“Let the little children come to me,” Jesus instructs in the Gospels. A 6-year-old boy named Renzo Ponse Mendoza took that invitation to heart, writing a letter to Pope Leo XIV filled with bubbly curiosity and deep, honest queries. 

Renzo’s questions bounced from soccer to whether the Pope had ever wanted his job as a child, before touching on heavier matters plaguing his young heart: why his dad has to work so many jobs and why so many people are forced to live on the streets.

Addressing his own path to holding the keys of St. Peter, Pope Leo admitted that the papacy had never crossed his mind as a child. “From a young age, I felt the desire to dedicate my life to God,” the Holy Father explained, noting that this calling ultimately led him to the priesthood through the Order of St. Augustine.

The Pope then turned the focus back to Renzo. “This isn’t just true for me. Every child is a dream of God — and you are, too. God desires the happiness of all and wants us, from childhood and throughout our lives, to have a heart like that of children.”

 Rather than focusing on grand ambitions, the Pope insisted that the most important question “is asking oneself whether one wants to be a friend of Jesus. Because friendship with Jesus gives us joy, sets us free, and helps us to see, step by step, the vocation and the path that God has planned for each of us.”

Finally, touching gently on Renzo’s worries about poverty, Pope Leo pointed to the life of Christ. He reassured the young boy that despite the suffering we see in the world, God “never abandons any of his children because he has prepared for us an eternal joy where there will be no more sadness or pain.”

2. Sagrada Família and Seeing With One’s Heart 

When Pope Leo XIV arrived to bless the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, his guide was 13-year-old Valentina Sánchez. Valentina, who has been blind since infancy, deeply moved the Holy Father and Spain’s royal family during a tactile presentation. Running her fingers across a model of the grand church, she guided the Pope through architect Venerable Antoni Gaudí’s intricate geometry, detailing the windows, shields and the monumental cross crowning the tower.

The blessing culminated in a grand dedication event, where the architectural masterpiece erupted into a spectacular light show, illuminating the structural forms and casting a brilliant, multicolored glow across the Barcelona night sky. For Valentina, who shares a dream with her father — a former basilica engineer — to “see” the finished cathedral, the moment was deeply profound.

Supported by Spain’s organization for the blind (ONCE), the young violinist thrives in a traditional local high school. Though she distinguishes only light from shadow, she left the Pope with a drawing of the cathedral, showing him exactly how she perceives Gaudí’s towering vision: not with her eyes, but “with her heart.”

3. Antonio Banderas Tells Pope Leo He’s Under ‘God’s Spell’

Inside Madrid’s Movistar Arena, Catholic actor Antonio Banderas met with Pope Leo XIV on June 7 to explore the profound intersection of faith and contemporary culture. Banderas, who had directed the cast of the musical Godspell for a massive papal youth vigil the previous evening at the Plaza de Lima, spoke passionately about how the popular piety and Holy Week processions of his native Málaga, Spain, had deeply shaped his life, faith and childhood.

Looking directly at the Holy Father, Banderas made a striking and intimate confession: “I am a victim of God’s spell.”

In his address, the acclaimed actor championed the unique, transcendent power of human creativity to protect individual dignity in a rapidly accelerating digital age. “In a world that at times is overly simplified,” Banderas stressed, “art helps us recover the depth and the soul that is trying to be stolen by artificial intelligence.”

His words beautifully echoed the Holy Father’s own urgent warning delivered to thousands of young people the night before. Abandoning his prepared remarks at the vigil, Pope Leo XIV implored the crowd to protect their humanity from digital reduction, stating: 

“Do not let algorithms decide who you are, who you love, or how you live. A computer can calculate options, but only a human heart can choose to sacrifice for another. Look up from your screens, look into each other's eyes, and dare to build a future rooted in real, embodied love.”

Together, the Pontiff and the actor offered a powerful defense of the human soul.

4. For a Moment in the Cockpit, We Saw Little Robert Prevost

On June 9, Spanish Air Force pilot Juan Enrique was flying a precision escort mission over Madrid, flanking the Iberia aircraft carrying Pope Leo XIV to Barcelona.

The flight took an unforgettable turn when the Holy Father stepped directly into the cockpit to greet his crew. Shown photos of Enrique — a father and devout Catholic — the Pope became visibly transfixed by the sight of the fighter jet soaring alongside them. With childlike wonder, Pope Leo leaned forward, waved enthusiastically through the glass, and eagerly took the radio microphone to speak to the pilot directly.

“It is a pleasure and a blessing to meet you,” the Pope’s voice crackled over the radio. “Thank you for everything. It is a great honor.”

For Enrique, navigating the speed and altitude of the clear Spanish skies, the technical mission instantly became a profound, personal moment of grace.

5. The Passing of Babies to Pope Leo

There are honestly too many to count, but we would be remiss if we didn't mention the many, many times mothers and fathers strategically lifted their young child or baby up to the Holy Father for a blessing. And despite the intrepid fear one might feel when watching a baby being hoisted high enough to reach the popemobile, the babies seemed to rather enjoy it, many giggling and smiling at the Pope. 

One moving image, captured by veteran photographer Emilio Morenatti of The Associated Press, has sparked a heartwarming search for the parents of a young boy caught in a tender moment with our American-born Pope during his stop in Barcelona.

A quiet moment with the successor of St. Peter obviously leaves a lasting impression on the faithful, both young and old. Yet even as we observe these beautiful snapshots captured between the Pope and a child, may we strive to bring that same exuberance and spiritual intentionality into our own lives — even if we are just witnessing his journey from afar.