Pope Benedict XVI was due to focus on family values on the second and final day of his Spanish sojourn yesterday, by dedicating Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Famlia church.
The visit comes a day after Benedict riled Spaniards by comparing their “aggressive” anti-church sentiments to the bloody civil war era when the church was violently persecuted.
He made clear his distaste for Spain’s liberal bent in the pilgrimage city of Santiago di Compostela on Saturday, where the remains of St James the Apostle are said to be buried.
Photo: AFP
Benedict was warmly received by a crowd of thousands chanting “Viva el papa!” but there were hints of opposition as well. About 100 people demonstrated against the pope’s visit and a handful of gays kissed along his motorcade route — a preview of the gay “kiss-in” protest that awaited him yesterday in Barcelona.
Benedict told reporters en route to Santiago that the anticlericalism seen now in Spain is like that of the 1930s, when the church suffered a wave of violence and persecution as the country lurched from an unstable democracy to civil war.
The reference was striking, given the scale of violence back then, when poverty-stricken and disgruntled Spaniards burned churches and murdered priests and nuns whom they considered obstacles to much-needed change. The church claims 4,184 clergy were killed by the government, or Republican side, which accused the Church of backing Fascist General Francisco Franco.
Nowadays, the church finds itself fighting laws supported by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist government that have allowed gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier abortions.
“In Spain, a strong, aggressive lay mentality, an anticlericalism and secularization has been born as we experienced in the 1930s,” Benedict told reporters.
The reference surprised Spaniards, with Cadena SER network saying: “The pope compares today’s Spain with the Republic.”
The pope said Spain was a particular focus of a new Vatican effort to fight secular trends worldwide since Spain had played such an important role in reviving Christianity in centuries past. He urged Europe as a whole to rediscover its Christian roots.
“Europe must open itself to God, must come to meet him without fear,” Benedict said in Spanish during a Mass before thousands in Santiago’s central Plaza del Obradoiro.
“The Europe of science and technology, the Europe of civilization and culture, must be at the same time a Europe open to transcendence and fraternity with other continents,” he said.
An estimated 6,000 people attended the open-air Mass in the shadow of Santiago’s ornate cathedral, where Benedict prayed before the apostle James’ tomb, embraced his statue and watched, a bit awe-struck, as a massive incense burner swung pendulum-like across the entire transept.
Legend holds that the enormous incense burner was used to mask the pungent odor of pilgrims who had walked for weeks to reach Santiago. Nowadays, the burner is hoisted and swung from an intricate system of pulleys only during solemn occasions.
Yesterday, the pope sprinkled holy water to consecrate Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church, transforming the masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi into a Basilica.
The church is a monument to the traditional family — another key theme Benedict is stressing in his Spanish visit.
Not everyone was excited about the pope’s visit.
“We want to let him know that he is not well received here because of the church opinion regarding sexual minorities,” protester Pilar Estevez said in Santiago.
Ahead of the planned “kiss-in” yesterday by members of the gay and lesbian community, Benedict on Saturday called the family the “fundamental cell of society” that forms the basis of faith and life. Church teaching holds that a family is based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and woman — not people of the same sex.
With such palpable opposition to the pope’s visit, Zapatero planned to meet Benedict just before he left last night, letting Spain’s royal family take care of protocol instead. Crown Prince Felipe and Crown Princess Letizia greeted Benedict at Santiago’s airport on Saturday and welcomed him to the country.
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