Pope arrives in Spain for two-day visit

Sat, 06 Nov 2010

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday arrived in Spain for a 32-hour visit during which he was expected to encourage the increasingly secular country to rediscover its Christian roots.

The Alitalia Airbus passenger jet carrying Benedict landed at the airport of the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela at 11.24 am (10.24 GMT).

Clad entirely in white, the pontiff was welcomed by Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia, while crowds waved yellow-and-white Vatican flags and cheered, "Long live the pope!"

Thousands of people were lined along the route that the popemobile was due to take to the city center.

About 6,000 seats had been reserved for believers at the Obradoiro square in the heart of the medieval city, where the pope was scheduled to celebrate a mass in the afternoon.

All the seats were filled already in the morning. Some of the faithful had spent the night outside to be able to attend the papal mass.

A group of Chilean students said they wanted to thank God for the recent rescue of 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine, while another group from Mexico said they would pray for world peace.

The papal mass in Santiago de Compostela will mark 2010 as a Holy Year in the city, a popular Christian pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages.

Before celebrating the mass, the pope was due to visit the cathedral and pray at the tomb of Saint James the Apostle.

More than 6,000 police had been mobilized in the biggest security operation ever in Santiago de Compostela.

The pontiff was later scheduled to fly to Barcelona where on Sunday he is set to consecrate the city's Sagrada Familia church. It was designed by the visionary architect and devout Catholic, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926).

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an agnostic whose liberal social reforms have frequently pitted him against the Vatican, will not attend either mass.

However, the pontiff planned to hold private talks with Zapatero at Barcelona airport before his departure for Rome on Sunday evening.

The visit was the pope's second to Spain, after a first one in 2006.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/352233,arrives-spain-two-day-visit.html.