Pope Benedict XVI visit to Spain

Pope Benedict XVI, spent the weekend in Spain for a two day visit.  The Pope arrived in Santiago de Compostela and was greeted by the heir to the Spanish throne, Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia. He visited the cathedral, which has been the site of the St. James celebrations this year. There, Pope Benedict prayed at what it believed to be the burial place of the apostle.

Later in the day, the pope held an open air mass at Obradoiro square which Felipe and Letizia attended.

Today, Sunday 7th November, Pope Benedict went to Barcelona to consecrate Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished basilica, the Sagrada Familia. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were there for the event, along with 6,500 faithful Spaniards. The royal couple were then present for the mass inside the basilica.

“I too wish to encourage Spain and Europe to build their present and to project their future on the basis of the authentic truth about man, on the basis of freedom which respects this truth and never harms it,” he said during the mass in Obradoiro square.

“The generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life,” Pope Benedict XVI said in Barcelona.

“For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the family,” he added.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to return to Spain next year. He will attend World Youth Day in Madrid.