The visit of Pope Leo XIV to Barcelona, coinciding with the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí and the crowning of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Família, makes 2026 an especially significant year for the city, reaffirming the importance of the humanistic perspective in a context of major technological and social change. In this scenario, the Faculty of Philosophy La Salle-URL strengthens its role as a space for critical thinking, reflection, and dialogue within a technological university campus.
This year, the Faculty of Philosophy La Salle-URL celebrates the 35th anniversary of the Philosophy studies at Universitat Ramon Llull (URL). This milestone recognises the trajectory of a faculty offering undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programmes that has historically been deeply rooted in faith, spirituality, and humanism. Heir to the Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus, founded in 1864, it had previously been based in the Seminary Building of Barcelona and is also one of the founding institutions of URL.
The Faculty of Philosophy joined La Salle-URL in September 2022, reinforcing the institution’s long-standing humanistic tradition and laying new foundations for critical thinking within an innovation ecosystem. Today, the Faculty coexists with the Schools of Architecture, Engineering, and Business, fostering collaboration and mutual learning among students, faculty members, and researchers, and actively contributing to the transdisciplinarity of the programmes taught on campus, leading many of the shared initiatives across different fields of knowledge.
In 2026, the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the crowning of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Família, and the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Barcelona are some of the elements reinforcing the relevance of faith, fraternity, and spirituality in an uncertain world, in which the Faculty of Philosophy becomes a guarantor of humanism, thoughtful reflection, critical thinking, and hope through teaching, research, and knowledge transfer.
The Faculty of Philosophy La Salle-URL is committed to a philosophy that is both rooted in history and open to the future. We address the most urgent challenges of today’s world. We champion the ability of philosophy to advance global perspectives, reflecting from depth and projecting them upward and outward toward today’s world, with impact in the fields of the arts and architecture, economics and politics, science and technology. Ultimately, it is a philosophy that is both plural and articulated, aware of where it comes from and where it is heading
Carles Llinàs, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy
Barcelona, Gaudí, and the visit of Pope Leo XIV
Throughout 2026, Barcelona stands at the centre of global attention with its status as World Capital of Architecture and the Gaudí Year, as well as with leading fairs and festivals such as Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), Mobile World Congress, and Sónar, among others, and La Salle-URL is part of this through different initiatives and forms of participation. On 9 and 10 June, the visit of Pope Leo XIV will once again place Barcelona on the international stage, with the central moment of the visit taking place on 10 June, featuring a mass and the blessing of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Família, coinciding with the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí. Other highlighted events include a mass at Barcelona Cathedral, a large gathering at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, a visit to Brians 1 prison, and a stop at Montserrat.
The visit of Leo XIV will mean building bridges not only among believers, but also between the Church and civil society, between faith and reason, because his presence reaches beyond those who profess the Christian faith. Although his main mission is to strengthen the faithful in their faith, Leo XIV will also arrive in Barcelona with a message open to every person of goodwill willing to listen. His visit may become an occasion for encounter and shared dialogue, capable of bringing different positions closer together and fostering fraternal coexistence
Ricardo Mejía, professor and researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy
The Faculty of Philosophy has promoted activities within the official Gaudí Year programme, such as a session of the Vespres de pensament series in which Francesc Torralba, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, analysed the architecture and symbolism of Gaudí’s great work: “The Sagrada Família is a total work of art: architecture, sculpture, music, and art all converge within it. In this sense, it has many affinities with what Wagner proposed in his operas.” In fact, paraphrasing Armand Puig, Torralba compared Gaudí’s genius to that of Ramon Llull: “Seven centuries separate them, but they are the two great geniuses of the Catalan language, Gaudí and Ramon Llull, the person who gives our university its name.”
In this same vein, Rosa Ma. Alsina, Provost of La Salle-URL and vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Junta Constructora del Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, recently stated on L'Escalinata, a podcast by Església Jove Barcelona: “Today, I would have no doubt that Gaudí was a genius because of how visionary he was about the future.” Regarding the current context of the temple and the city, Rosa Ma. Alsina also commented: “I think we are in a fantastic moment, not only because of the completions, but because the public perception of the temple, both in Barcelona and globally, is truly positive and joyful. We have the feeling that people are paying attention to the project.”
The visit of Pope Leo XIV has a strong religious component, but also a symbolic and cultural one, as it connects the figure of the Pope with Gaudí and the Sagrada Família, an emblematic monument of Barcelona’s urban and cultural landscape. The presence of the pontiff will have a major impact on Barcelona and Catalonia, and La Salle-URL will be present, as it has always been throughout its history, to support the territorial, economic, and social development of its environment.
The Faculty of Philosophy promotes spaces for debate and reflection on campus
Since joining the campus in the 2022-23 academic year, the Faculty of Philosophy has contributed its humanistic perspective to the teaching, research, and knowledge transfer activities of La Salle-URL, as well as to university life, outreach, and social action.
The Faculty of Philosophy coordinates the course Thought and Creativity, a core subject for all undergraduate degrees on campus, in which students read classical books, work on projects linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, and carry out social action activities. In addition, continuing the course content, Philosophy professors lead the Reading Cafés, periodic sessions open to the entire campus community to debate and reflect on great works of universal classical literature. The Faculty also promotes cross-disciplinary initiatives such as Political cycle, Evenings of reflection, and the Feast Day of Blessed Ramon Llull, as well as talks, round tables, and book presentations.
The Faculty has a doctoral programme, a research line within the Smart Society group, and the journal COMPRENDRE, which last academic year obtained the highest rating (Level A) in the Carhus Plus 2025 systems of AGAUR and CIRC of the CSIC. As Armando Pego, academic director of the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy, principal researcher of the Filocultura line, and director of COMPRENDRE, explains, teaching, research, and knowledge transfer are interconnected within the Faculty.
The Doctoral Programme in Philosophy: Humanism and Transcendence, which we offer jointly with Universidad Pontificia Comillas, provides the opportunity to research fundamental issues of our time, such as the ethical and aesthetic conceptions that define it or the relationships between science, technology, and philosophy. We guide this research through the FiloCultura line, especially dedicated to the social impact of great books. In this sense, for more than 25 years the journal COMPRENDRE has been an international hallmark of the transfer of our knowledge
Armando Pego, academic director of the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy
At a time of major technological, social, and cultural transformations, the Faculty of Philosophy La Salle-URL continues to project the humanistic tradition into the future, faithful to its mission of educating people who are aware of their roots and oriented toward the world, and professionals capable of contributing to education, business, cultural institutions, public administration, and research, committed to building a fully human society.