Fr. Lombardi's briefing today on the Pope's two-city trip to Spain next week finally disclosed some details on the where and when of the Holy Father's meeting with Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero on Nov.7, which although confirmed since a few weeks ago, has never been mentioned in the programs released for the Pope's stay in Barcelona.
Airport meeting with Zapatero
before Pope heads back to Rome
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 29 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will briefly meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero at Barcelona airport at the end of a planned two-day visit next weekend, the Vatican said Friday.
The Pope will visit Santiago de Compostela on November 6 and Barcelona on November 7, where he will celebrate the consecration Mass of the Sagrada Familia cathedral
[It is not a cathedral - the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona is the city's medieval cathedral, in the Barrio Gotico of Barcelona's historic center] designed by modernist architect Antoni Gaudi.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the trip was a "pastoral visit" that had no official political nature.
The Pope's next trip to Spain in August 2011 for World Youth Day in Madrid will include more formal discussions with state representatives, Lombardi told a press conference.
Zapatero had an audience with Benedict at the Vatican on June 10, a month before his Socialist government passed a more liberal abortion law in Spain.
The law has been heavily criticised by organisations within the Roman Catholic Church, including the Pontifical Academy for Life.
The president of the Academy, Mons. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula [who is a Spaniard], denounced the law as "absolutely insane."
Lombardi said the Christian family may be one of Benedict's "themes" during the homily at the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.
Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority since being elected pontiff in 2005.
Critics have questioned the cost of the Pope's trip but Lombardi it was not "extravagant," particularly because there was no need to build stands in either Santiago or Barcelona.
Lombardi told journalists he was aware that the cost of the Pope's trips was a sensitive issue because of the financial crisis.
But he said the Vatican was not "throwing money out of the window" and stressed the positive spiritual and moral consequences of the trips.
[Not to mention the unprecedented historic nature of both occasions for the visit!]
The papal visit to Barcelona will cost around 700,000 euros (974,000 dollars) and will generate close to 30 million euros from the large numbers of pilgrims and tourists expected to attend, according to organisors.
Traditional pilgrim rituals await
the Pope in Santiago de Compostela
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 29 (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI heads to Spain Nov. 6-7, he will follow some of the traditional rituals that pilgrims engage in when visiting the popular pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela.
It will be his first time to the ancient pilgrimage city and to Barcelona where he will consecrate the partially completed Church of the Sagrada Familia, or Holy Family.
"He's very happy to go (to Compostela) because it's something he has wanted very much," said the Vatican's chief spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, during a press briefing Oct. 29.
Before becoming Pope, "he and his brother also once talked about them going together, but it never happened," said Father Lombardi.
Though he will not have walked the miles of roadsides and pathways other Compostela pilgrims travel when going on foot or by horse, the Pope will still carry out some of the traditional pilgrimage rituals at the cathedral.
The Pope will enter through the cathedral's Holy Door, which was opened at the start of the year. The feast of St. James, July 25, fell on a Sunday this year, making 2010 a holy year.
Tradition holds that the remains of the apostle St. James the Greater -- Santiago in Spanish -- are buried in the city's cathedral. The Pope will head to the crypt and pray at the apostle's tomb and he will embrace a statue of St. James, another pilgrim tradition.
Finally, the Pope will incense the cathedral in an unusual method particular to the Santiago church.
A giant incense burner, about the size of an adult human being, hangs from a rope wrapped around a double pulley in front of the main altar. At special pilgrim Masses and events, the incense burner is swung across the church in a trajectory similar to that of a trapeze performer in a circus.
The burner is called a "botafumeiro" in Galician, the Spanish dialect spoken in Santiago de Compostela, and it means "smoke thrower."
In medieval times, its function was not just liturgical. It was also filled with perfumes to deodorize the smells from the hordes of sweating and unwashed pilgrims who went straight to the cathedral after days on the road.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/10/2010 20:31]