AFP has the only MSM news agency account of today's main event that did not lead off by giving equal importance to a major Church event as a demonstration by a hundred couples at most whose militancy in advocating/advertising their private lifestyle has deprived them of every shred of civility and common sense....
Cheers as Pope consecrates
Barcelona landmark
BARCELONA, Nov. 7 (AFP) - Thousands of faithful cheered as Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday concecrated the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona -- Antonio Gaudi's architectural masterpiece which has come to symbolise the Spanish city.
Crowds of up to five rows deep lined both sides of the street leading to the Basilica, whose eight towers topped with ceramics dominate Barcelona's skyline.
"Yes, yes, yes, the Pope is already here," a group of youths chanted as the pontiff's white popemobile approached.
[That chant would be SI, SI, SI - EL PAPA YA ESTA AQUI!]
Adults and children climbed onto window sills to get a better look at the 83-year-old Pope while others snapped pictures on their mobile phones.
"This is really moving. I saw the Pope wave. It is not every day that you see the Pope in person," said 36-year-old Soraya Santamaria after the popemobile passed by.
She had waited for over an hour with her daughter and a female friend who came with her two daughters.
Several streets leading to the church were closed and rows of wooden chairs laid out in front of giant screens that broadcast the mass.
The faithful watching the ceremony outside the church applauded when Benedict sprinkled holy water to consecrate the Sagrada Familia, transforming it into a Basilica.
"This is a historic day for the city, it was important for me to be here," said 55-year-old Joan Asensior who wore a grey hat in the chill.
Signs in the yellow and white of the Vatican flag were hung from several apartments in the streets around the church welcoming the German-born Pontiff with the words: "All with the Pope."
But from many other apartments, often in the same buildings, other banners from an anti-papal movement declared "Jo no t'espero", the Catalan for "I am not waiting for you", along with a red triangle imposed over the pope's profile.
"Homophobia. Hypocrisy. Corruption. Confessional state. Paedophilia. Vatican bank. NO THANK YOU," read one large white and black banner hung from the balcony of an apartment near the Sagrada Familia.
Around 200 gay men and women couples kissed each other in protest against the Church opposition to homosexuality as Benedict's popemobile passed by, breaking off to shout "Get out," and "paedophile".
The Pope celebrated the solemn mass on a 7.5-tonne stone altar, accompanied by hymns from an 800-voice chorus. Hundreds of priests and bishops were among the 6,500 guests inside the church.
Flags from South Korea, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico could be seen among the crowd that surrounded the Sagrada Familia.
"I had to come. I could not stay at home. I have a lot of faith," said Solange Abreu, a 41-year-old Brazilian who lives in Barcelona and who came to the mass with a friend.
It was the first papal Mass in a bullring! The city of Barcelona had the inspired idea of making its famous Plaza Monumental bullring one of the convenient lcoation for following the events on jumbo TV. The bullring has a capacity of 20,000.
Now that the nave is consecrated, it will be open for daily Mass for the first time since the first stone was laid March 19, 1882. Up until now services were held in the crypt, which houses Gaudi's remains.
The building work could still take another 15 years at least, with 10 more spires to go, including the central tower crowned by a cross reaching up 170 metres (560 feet).
Pope consecrates Gaudi's basilica:
'A hymn of praise in stone'
by Lydia O'Kane in Barcelona
Nov. 7, 2010
On Sunday morning to the chiming of bells, Pope Benedict XVI left the archbishop’s residence in Barcelona making the journey to the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia, a structure that has been under construction since 1882.
Again as in Santiago de Compostela, people lined the route to the church with banners and waved Vatican, Catalan and Spanish flags; there were even balloons which were launched into the sky in the colours of yellow and white.
Countless years and thousands of hours of work have gone into bringing Gaudi’s masterpiece to this stage and even the last minute preparations for this consecration by the Pope had been painstaking.
The Sagrada Familia is not due to be finished until 2026, but on this Sunday in Barcelona it looked breathtaking both inside and out.
At exactly 10am Pope Benedict entered the soon-to-be Basilica, a place where art intertwines with faith.
Light shone down from the temple’s sculpted ceiling and penetrated its stained glass windows, and the Pope dressed in gold walked down the nave’s glistening new marble floor in front of 6,500 guests including the King and Queen of Spain.
It seemed at this moment that amidst cheers and applause that the Sagrada Family had really come to life.
Following a greeting by the Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona Lluis Martinez Sistach, chief architect Jordi Bonet, a man who has devoted much of his life to this temple dedicated to the Holy Family, addressed the Pope in Catalan.
Where the Pope, during his time spent in Santiago de Compostela had focused on the themes of pilgrimage and Christian identity, his words for this consecration of the Sagrada Familia centered on the family, beauty, and the importance of Jesus as a rock.
He began his homily expressing his joy at being able to preside over this ceremony and his happiness that this shrine has a special relationship with St Joseph.
The Pope described the temple’s visionary architect Antoni Gaudi as a man who “as a practicing Christian had kept the torch of his faith alight to the end of his life.” And a man, he added, who made “stones, trees and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in praise of God.”
Drawing on the theme of building and creating which has been such a part of the Sagrada Familia, the Holy Father called to mind Jesus being the “stone which supports the weight of the world”, and without Christ the Church itself is nothing.
The Pope also noted the importance of the timing of this dedication, saying that it comes at a time when man claims to live his life without God, but he added “with this masterpiece Gaudi shows us that God is the true measure of man.”
In the latter part of his homily the Pope turned his attention to the defence of the family and the dignity of the human person.
He stressed that besides technical, social and cultural advances there also needed to be moral advances as well, such as assistance to families.
The Holy Father brought home to the congregation the need to protect human life from beginning to end, the importance of marriage between a man and a woman and the need for them to be supported in this role.
Pope Benedict ended his homily in Catalan, asking Mary Most Holy to protect this house of God before divesting himself of his gold vestments for the solemn rite of dedication where he poured chrism oil on the four corners of the alter turning this place of beauty into a true place of God, wearing white robes.
At the end of a truly memorable occasion Cardinal Sistach showed off to the assembly the certificate - a papal bull - proclaiming this temple a Basilica. Then Pope Benedict left the basilica briefly by one of its side portals to lead Angelus prayers before pilgrims gathered outside the church.
The Pope told them that it had given him great satisfaction to declare this church a Minor Basilica, a place where men and women of every continent can contemplate this catechism in stone - a work by which Gaudi sought to bring the Gospel to everyone.
NB:
A later RV report said at least 300,000 turned out in Barcelona Sunday for the Pope, including teh 50,000 who had tickets for the seats set up by the Archdiocese around the Cathedral.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/11/2010 10:16]