On Catalonia’s National Day, the Catalan National Assembly and other pro-independence organisations will pay tribute to singers from various choirs who were expelled from the Sagrada Família during Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Barcelona.
This year’s 11 September demonstration will give a prominent role to 150 of those singers, who will perform several musical pieces and close the event by singing “Els Segadors”, Catalonia’s national anthem. Their participation will pay tribute to those whose freedom of expression was restricted during the Pope’s visit to Barcelona.
Last June, during Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Barcelona for a commemorative mass marking the centenary of Gaudí’s death, more than 600 singers from various Catalan choirs were due to perform “El Virolai” –a popular religious hymn– at the Sagrada Família. Spanish police intervention prevented them from completing the planned programme, and the singers were expelled from the basilica. The incident occurred after it emerged that some of the singers planned to unfurl Catalan independence estelada flags during “El Virolai” and that they might sing “Els Segadors”, which had been overlooked in the scheduled programme.
The singers’ participation is part of a Catalan National Day demonstration which, under the slogan “I am here. We are here. For the present and the future: Independence”, seeks to bring people back onto the streets and reaffirm freedom, national dignity and the Catalan people’s right to decide our own future.