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Il Baglio, a cultural circle from Cefalù (Sicily, Italy), invited José Manuel Almuzara to an online conversation in its series «A scuola dal Papa» («At school with the Pope»). In the meeting, recorded on 29 July 2026, Almuzara looked back on the evening of 10 June, when Leo XIV prayed at Gaudí's tomb, and spoke about the cause of beatification.
The 52-minute conversation was published on 1 September 2026 on Calogero Zuppardo's YouTube channel under the title «Architetti e Artisti A SCUOLA DAL PAPA». Zuppardo, an architect, hosted it as part of a series of video conferences through which the group follows the Pope's teaching closely. He recalled the group's long relationship with Gaudí, which began in 1994 and reached its high point in August 2011, when a hundred people travelled to Barcelona and were welcomed by Almuzara, among others. Il Baglio, Zuppardo explained, seeks «masters to look to who point us to the true Master, who is Christ», and on the holiness of Gaudí he considers Almuzara the most interesting person to hear. The group is already preparing another trip to Barcelona for spring 2027.
Almuzara, who spoke in Spanish with an Italian translation, opened with a text written for the occasion, which he titled «El momentazo», a truly special moment. In it he went back to Wednesday 10 June 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death, when he saw Pope Leo XIV pray before the architect's tomb and light a candle. He lived it with a very special joy and with gratitude. That same day marked thirty-four years since the founding of the Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí, started on 10 June 1992 by five lay people, Almuzara among them. «It has been worth it», he said, and added: «Seeing the Pope before Gaudí's tomb stirred in my heart a feeling, a kind of inner certainty, that the moment when we will see his beatification proclaimed is now closer».
The Sagrada Família, Gaudí's great work, took up much of the conversation. Almuzara recalled how the Pope described Gaudí that evening: an architect of ardent faith who conceived the church to narrate the mysteries of the Lord's life and so offered a spiritual pilgrimage towards the encounter with Christ. He also quoted what the Pope said before the Tower of Jesus Christ, blessed that day. The cross that crowns it shines by day with the light of the sun and at night lights up the city like a beacon facing the Mediterranean, and in the cross of Jesus faith reaches its summit, as the inscription at the base of the spire proclaims: «Tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus». He closed with words of Gaudí recalled by Benedict XVI: «A temple is the only thing worthy of representing the feeling of a people, since religion is the highest thing in man».
Asked where his commitment came from, Almuzara explained that some fifty years ago, as a fifth-year architecture student in Barcelona, he met two disciples of Gaudí who were directing the works on the Sagrada Família. He discovered first the architect, then the man and finally the Christian. The conversion to Catholicism of his Japanese friend Etsuro Sotoo, a sculptor at the basilica, made him see that Gaudí was far more than an architect. In 1992 he was moved by John Paul II's words on the call of lay people to holiness. At first, praying to an architect seemed somewhat strange, but the favours kept coming. Gaudí has been Venerable since 2025, and his beatification requires a recognised miracle. In Almuzara's words, «looking where Gaudí looks leads us to God».