[Gocamino] Pope says Zapatero leading Spain into aggressive secularism

[Grant Spangler]

Pope says Zapatero leading Spain into aggressive secularism 

Pope Benedict XVI has said Spain is in the grip of an "aggressive secularism", promoted by Zapatero's PSOE government, as he arrives in Spain to visit Santiago and Barcelona. Prime Minister Zapatero had caused controversy by leaving the country unannounced on the eve of the Pope's visit to inspect troops in Afghanistan, in his first trip to the country in 2005, prompting allegations that he is snubbing the Pope.

Amid heavy and cold fog, Pope Benedict XVI's plane landed at Lavacolla airport in Santiago de Compostela, at 11.24 hours, where he was welcomed by the Prince of Asturias and a crowd of hundreds of faithful, amid shouts of "Viva il Papa!". During the flight, the Pope spoke about the existence in Spain of an "aggressive secularism" and established a direct relationship between the current clash between secularism and faith in Zapatero's Spain and the anticlericalism of the Second Republic, during the thirties. 

In fact, Spain ranks high on the agenda of the Vatican. Benedict XVI has told reporters that the new Vatican Congregation, a sort of ministry for the new evangelization, was intended "for all major Western countries, but especially for Spain," because of "rapid decline of religious practice "in the country. "Faith", Ratzinger continued, "must be renewed to meet the challenge of secularism, which exists in France and the Czech Republic and also in Spain, a country of origin of faith, where there has been a renaissance of Catholicism visible in San Ignacio and other figures." However, he explained that the new Congregation has been created thinking "of the world, because unity of that thought is universal."

Counting his next trip to Madrid in 2011, Benedict XVI will have made three visits to Spain in six years. Asked about the reason for so many trips, the Pope replied that "it is a sign of love and duty." He recalled that he could not miss Valencia in 2006 or Madrid at the next World Youth Day in 2011, nor this pilgramage to the Holy Year in Galicia and the consecration of the temple of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Amid heavy fog, after leaving the airport the Pope has come to Santiago de Compostela, where he was received with a crowd of cheering faithful, waiting stationed in the streets. The main topics of his visit, said Ratzinger, is his pilgrimage, "which teaches us not to lose the way of faith", he has said, "and the beauty that is the expression of the tradition of seeking the path of the renewal of the relationship between art and faith, beauty and reason. "

Fuente: http://thereader.es/en/spain-politics/4977-pope-says-zapatero-leading-spain-into-aggressive-secularism.html
 
 
I spoke with a friend who lives on the Muxia extension yesterday. She said balconies in Santiago are renting for €2000 to €3000 where one MIGHT glimpse Il Papa as he goes by. Hoteles and hostales were immediately sold out upon the announcement several months ago for double to triple the usual fare. 
 
The secularization and over-popularization of the Camino seems to have changed things a bit. The Road we walked this past winter showed the signs of dubious 'progress'. Still, the majority of the Spanish populace welcomes you as long-lost extended family. The Road has survived for centuries, and will invariably survive the latest onslaught.    


Buen Camino,


Grant

http://www.ElCaminoSantiago.com
Resources for the Pilgrimage Road to Santiago 




> To: GOCAMINO at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> From: blaroli at aol.com
> Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2010 19:30:53 -0400
> Subject: [Gocamino] The Pope in Santiago
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Share
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Pope in Santiago: truth and freedom are inseparable
> Austen Ivereigh 
> 
> 
> [SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA] After kissing the relics of St James, the Pope in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has just finished a speech in which he recalled the proper meaning of pilgrimage, and spoke of the inseparability of freedom and truth.
> Both speak to concerns of the Spanish Church. The popularity of the Camino de Santiago threatens to secularize it. And Spanish liberalism and anticlericalism have long defined freedom as throwing off the dogmas of the Church.
> To go on pilgrimage, the Pope said, is not simply to admire treasures of art and history but "to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe."
> Through faith, he said, "we are embraced by God, transformed by his love". The Church, he said, "is this embrace of God, in which men and women learn also to embrace their brothers and sisters and to discover in them the divine image and likeness which constitutes the deepest truth of their existence, and which is the origin of genuine freedom".
> He then linked freedom to truth, which he said were "closely and necessarily related".
> "Honestly seeking and aspiring to truth is the condition of authentic freedom," he said. "One cannot live without the other." The Church cannot renounce either, he added, quoting Gaudium et Spes, because she is "moved by love for man, 'the only creature on earth which God has wanted for his own sake'."
> He went on to describe Compostela as "a school of unbounded universality", adding yet another tribute to the many which Santiago currently enjoys.
> He ended by thanking Catholics for the generosity of their support for "so many institutions of charity and of human development" -- before adding a non-too-subtle reminder to secular Spain of the contribution the Church makes to civil society, especially through its social arm Caritas.
> "Continue to maintain these works which benefit society as a whole," he said, "and whose effectiveness has been shown in a special way in the present economic crisis".
> 
> --------
> 
> ps. The Pope does have a point about the popularization of the Camino: more than a quarter of a million pilgrims had received the Compostela by October 31, 2010, (256.948, to be precise) and the year isn't over yet! In 2009 the Compostela earning pilgrims totaled 145,878 and in the last Holy Year, 2004, 179,944.
> 
> Hugs!
> 
> Rosina
> 
> Rosina
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino