'A good man': Spain reacts to Pope Francis' death

Pope Francis, an energetic reformer who inspired widespread devotion from Catholics but riled traditionalists, died on Monday aged 88.

The Argentine pontiff, leader of the Catholic Church since March 2013, spent 38 days being treated for double pneumonia at Rome's Gemelli hospital before seeming to recover and leaving the facility on March 23rd.

A football-loving former archbishop of Buenos Aires who was often happiest among his flock, Francis sought to forge a more open and compassionate church.

He strongly defended social justice, the rights of migrants and the environment, while also pushing through governance reforms and tackling the scourge of clerical sex abuse of children.

But critics accused him of creating doctrinal confusion and failing to defend traditional Catholic beliefs on key issues such as abortion and divorce.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday hailed Pope Francis's "commitment to peace, social justice and the most vulnerable".

"I am sorry to hear of the death of Pope Francis. His commitment to peace, social justice and the most vulnerable leaves a profound legacy. Rest in peace," the Socialist leader wrote on X.

Spain’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero stated that "history will remember him as a good, just man who always stood by the weakest and most needy."

Spain’ Minister of Transport Óscar Puente also expressed his condolences, recalling "his approachability and sense of humour" when visiting the pontiff, asserting that this put "Christ and his message at the centre."

Numerous Spanish football teams including Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have tweeted out condolences after the announcement of the Pope's death.

Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, head of Spain’s centre-right Popular Party, described El Papa Francisco as "the Pope who spoke Spanish and was on the verge of making a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela."

Pope Francis never visited Spain during his time as pontiff (he did spend time in Alcalá de Henares and Mallorca before becoming Pope) but at times he did speak about the country.

In an interview with Cope radio station in 2021, he said: "I don't know if Spain is fully reconciled with its own history, especially the history of the last century” in reference to the Catalan independence movement, adding that the expression "national unity" is fascinating, but "it will never be valued without the basic reconciliation of peoples."

He also spoke out about the mass graves where thousands of bodies of victims of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship, arguing that "a society cannot smile at the future while keeping its dead hidden."

In 2015, Pope Francis invited a Spanish transsexual man to the Vatican after he wrote to the pontiff complaining of feeling marginalised by the Catholic Church in his home town of Plasencia after having a sex change.

The 266th Pope also showed concern about the migration crisis in the Canary Islands which has cost the lives of thousands of sub-Saharan men, women and children at sea, expressing interest in visiting the Spanish archipelago to garner more attention.

More recently, Pope Francis declared Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí "venerable", bringing the designer of Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica closer to sainthood.