BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

The impact of Benedict XVI's visit to Spain:
Interview with the editor of 'Catalunya Cristiana'


BARCELONA, Spain, NOV. 8, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has had a great impact during his two-day visit to Spain, says Father Jaume Aymar, but now we must reflect on his message more profoundly.


This week's issue of Catalunya Cristiana carries a 20-page special report on the Pope's visit but unfortunately, only Page 1 is available online.

The director of Radio Estel and editor of the weekly newspaper Catalunya Cristiana spoke with ZENIT about the Pope's visit, which ended Sunday.

He noted the Pontiff's message including the invitation to overcome the split between human conscience and Christian conscience, the need for advances in medicine to respect human life and dignity, and the contribution of the faith to a more fitting and promising society.

Father Aymar pointed out that this visit also showed the public for the first time the interior of the church of the Sagrada Familia and has sparked greater general interest in the faith.


What is your overall evaluation of the Pope's visit to Barcelona?
My evaluation is very positive. In the first place because it's an historic event for the Pope to visit us. The last visit was 28 years ago, and this is almost a generation ago. It's something unusual.

Then, very important for me was the dedication of the Church of the Sagrada Familia because it is a church that those of us who were born in Barcelona have seen 'grow' day by day. To see the church finally covered [The construction of the roof over the ccatehdral came at a fairly late stage] and dedicated by the Holy Father is the fulfillment of a dream.

Also very important was the visit to the Obra Benefico-Social Nen Deu because it was another eloquent setting that is dear to me.

I saw the the Pope, if I can use the expression, as a grandfather visiting his grandchildren on a Sunday afternoon. He met with handicapped children, many of them from poor families. It's a very graphic way of saying: I am with you, the Pope is with you.

In your opinion, what were the most significant moments of this visit?
A very emotional moment for me was the Pope's entrance in the Sagrada Familia. Those who were close to him have told us that the Pope was really moved, because that forest of palms which is the interior of the Sagrada Familia is really overwhelming.

Then the moment when he handed the Papal Bull by virtue of which the church was declared a basilica. One could see the joy of the [archbishop of Barcelona] Cardinal Martinez Sistach when he showed it to the faithful and when he read it.

Also lovely was the Pope's look that he shared with the women religious of the Obra Benefico-Social Nen Deu and his gestures of tenderness for the children living there.

What do you think were his principal messages?
Interesting I think was what the Pope said in the homily, that "one of the most important tasks today is to overcome the split between human conscience and Christian conscience, between existence in this temporal world and openness to an eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as Beauty."

It is a view that does not have two societies, God's and men's, but which is one human society that must be open to the transcendent.

Also in the meeting with the handicapped, he said that it was imperative that the new technological developments in the medical field never be used in detriment to respect for human life and dignity.

When he took his leave in the airport, he made a good synthesis of his visit, saying that the Sagrada Familia and social work are as two symbols in today's Barcelona of the fecundity of that same faith that contributes to create a society more worthy of the human being.

And that final note, when he said that beauty, sanctity and love of God lead the human being to live in the world with hope.

Specifically, what impact do you think this visit is having and will have on Barcelona and the world?
I think that for many it was the occasion to discover the church of the Holy Family, starting with Barcelona's residents themselves, who have not seen it finished.

It has had scaffolding, and yesterday was the first day that it could be seen, either by being present there, or thanks to the television cameras and TV3's magnificent broadcast.

The Sagrada Familia is already one of the most visited monuments in Spain, but since this visit, it will be all the more so.

The visit of a Pope also leads to interest in the faith. This very morning I was in a public radio station and the speaker, who described himself as a non-believer, said to me: "These days I have learned much."

For non-believers or non-practicing believers, the visit of a Pope can be an occasion to be interested again in the religious and Christian phenomenon.

What is your opinion of the media coverage of the visit?
I think it was really extraordinary and that Barcelona rose to the occasion. In the press center set up in the Maritime Museum of Atarazanas there were journalists from all over the world.

On the part of our media, we are happy about the way the organization was carried out, with the logical difficulties and failures that can occur, but the evaluation is very positive.

There was talk of 150 million spectators: It's an extraordinary coverage and diffusion.

As editor of Catalunya Cristiana, I want to thank La Vanguardia newspaper, which in its Saturday supplement carried Catalunya Cristiana as an insert, with a print-run of 150,000 copies, which is an historic print-run for our weekly.

And the coverage by external media?
(here in Spain), there was an effort made to 'normalize' religious language. Ours is a society in which many have marked ignorance of religious events.

So, for example, the Catalan Media Corporation elaborated a linguistic home page, which included a glossary of useful religious terms for journalists and communicators. I think it was very important. It's been a good service, a document elaborated expressly for this visit, which explains things as basic as what a miter is, a staff, the rites.

Of course, the media also Reflected also attitudes against to the Pope's visit, but the media did so because they exist; we are in a plural society.

However, what is most serious and most worrying is not that, but indifference. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said it: The worst evil is indifference.

If someone opposed the visit, with his reasons, he can be answered. What is worrisone is indifference or those who were even unaware of the visit.


Maximum audiences for Spanish TV
coverage of the Pope's visit
Adapted and translated from the Italian service of



MADRID, Nov. 8 (ZENIT.org). - On Spanish TV, 12.4 million persons watched at any given moment the visit of Benedict XVI to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona, according to Spanish state radio.

For the weekend, TVE - state television - transmitted 32 hours of programming dedicated exclusively to the visit on its three channels.

It included direct and full coverage of both Masses as well as specials for the visit. Later on, it re-broadcast the material.

And the two regional TV networks registered historical audiences.
Televisión de Galicia noted that 45% of residents followed their direct broadcasts at any given moment, and Televisió de Catalunya, which had six hours of live broadcasts, reported viewership at any moment to be around 1.6 million.

The two regional networks were in charge of producing the official broadcasts, which were subscribed to by more than 1,000 TV channels around the world, and for which they deployed an extraordinary amount of human and technical resources.

Televisión de Galicia had 60 TV cameras covering the Pope's itinerary from Lavacolla airport to the Cathedral, the rites inside the Cathedral, the afternoon Mass and the Pope's departure. These were supported by 19 mobile vans and another 12 vans to transmit the broadcasts by satellite. All in all, it deployed 500 professionals, between technicians and journalists, to cover the visit.

Catalunya's TV3, veteran of covering the 1992 Olympics, said the event was one of their largest coverages, using 60 TV cameras with the most up-to-date technology to follow the Pope's motorcade, deployed outside and within Sagrada Familia, on a helicopter, and one in the Popemobile itself.

Within Sagrada Familia alone, 32 TV cameras were deployed, including experimental 3D cameras and a 'spider camera' suspended from the ceiling by special cables that enabled it to 'travel' across the ceiling to cover the Mass from overhead, and microcameras to capture details of the rite.

All told, at least 150 million persons around the world watched the visit on TV, based on viewership in the countries and channels that had subscribed to the coverage. This does not include 'internauts' who followed the visit through various Web applications.


This is certainly one of the supreme paradoxes in secular Spain - for public TV to have been so involved in covering the Pope's visit. Obviously, the interest of so many TV channels worldwide to subscribe to their services was a healthy financial incentive. During Benedict XVI's Pontificate so far, I do not recall a similar worldwide demand for direct coverage of a papal visit (other than EWTN which broadcasts CTV coverage to its various outlets in Asia, Europe and the Americas). I imagine that the subscribers to the visit coverage are those that usually subscribe regularly to the broadcast of the Pope's Midnight Mass at Christmas, and Urbi et Orbi blessings on Christmas Day, New year's Day and Easter.... And still some in MSM will persist in saying that the public has little interest in Benedict XVI!