{"id":468575,"date":"2026-06-09T15:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468575\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:31:14","slug":"princess-leonor-of-spain-shows-her-respect-for-pope-leo-xiv-on-her-most-high-profile-engagement-to-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468575\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Leonor of Spain shows her respect for Pope Leo XIV on her most high-profile engagement to date"},"content":{"rendered":"

A highlight of the itinerary will see Pope Leo inaugurate the recently completed Tower of Jesus Christ spire at the Bas\u00edlica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the architect Antoni Gaud\u00ed’s death.<\/p>\n

In a mark of respect for His Holiness, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia dressed in head-to-toe black for the audience. It is custom for the majority of royal women to wear the colour when meeting with the Pope.<\/p>\n

Notably exempt was their mother, Queen Letizia, who as the Queen<\/a> of a Catholic country, she is one of only eight royal women permitted to wear white when meeting with the Pope. Known as \u2018privil\u00e8ge du blanc\u2019, the rule exempts queens and consorts of specific countries from the traditional expectations of wearing black on such occasions.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

King Felipe and Queen Letizia were joined by their daughters, Infanta Sofia (far left) and Princess Leonor (second from left) for the formal reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid<\/p>\n

Carlos Alvarez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In addition to Queen Letizia, the privil\u00e8ge du blanc is bestowed upon the Queen of Belgium, the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (Grand Duchess St\u00e9phanie recently made her debut in white upon a meeting with the Pope), the Princess of Monaco<\/a> and the princesses of the House<\/a> of Savoy.<\/p>\n

Two former Queens, whose husbands no longer reign, are also permitted to wear white: Queen Paola of Belgium and Queen Sofia of Spain<\/a> \u2013 as such, it is likely that Grand Duchess Maria Teresa also still possesses the privilege. The first queen to make use of the exception was reportedly Victoria<\/a> Eugenia of Spain, during a private conversation with Pope Pius XI in 1923.<\/p>\n

The Privilege does not mean that queens and princesses from Catholic countries are obligated to wear white, however. When Princess Charlene<\/a> met Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, she donned an all-white look \u2013 the first time that any Mon\u00e9gasque princess had done so. She did the same in 2016, though she opted for all-black in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A highlight of the itinerary will see Pope Leo inaugurate the recently completed Tower of Jesus Christ spire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69,141386,232415,237066,170021],"class_list":["post-468575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-princess-leonor","tag-queen-letizia","tag-queen-letizia-of-spain","tag-spanish-royal-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}