Coordinator briefs Spanish media
on some facts about the Pope's visit
Translated from
November 4, 2010
Isidro Catela, media coordinator of the papal visit to Spain this weekend, pointed out that after Benedict XVI visits Madrid in August 2011 for World Youth Day, Spain will be the country he will have most visited as Pope.
][He will have visited it three times, but as cardinal, he visited Spain seven times, though strangely, never to Barcelona and Compostela. Well, not so strange really, as his previous trips were all by invitation for a specific purpose - mostly to give lectures - so he did not choose the destination cities. The other oddity of all his three Spanish trips as Pope is that none of them is a full-fledged pastoral visit. Valencia in July 2006 was for the purpose of concluding the World Encounter of Families. Compostela and Barcelona this weekend are also for specific purposes - one, a personal pilgrimage on the occasion of a Jacobean Holy Year, and the other, to dedicate what is without a doubt the most significant church architecture in the Christian world since the last of the great Baroque masterpieces. And Madrid will be for WYD 2011.)
On the other hand, John Paul II made four pastoral visits to Spain, and a fifth one for World Youth day in Compostela.
This weekend, Benedict XVI will spend a total of 36 hours in both Santiago and Barcelona. he will have no public events other than liturgical celebrations and, in Barcelona, a visit to the Nen Deus social center.
Originally a center for children afflicted with Downs syndrome, Catela pointed out that the center now has more handicapped adults than children because "the number of children with Downs has gone down considerably since fetuses diagnosed with Downs are increasingly being aborted".
This has been abetted, Catela said, by legislation that consider abortion as a 'right' and have included it among the meeasures that are 'necessary' to safeguard women's health".
Catela cited three keys "for apprerciating the Pope's visit".
The first is to remember that the Camino de Santiago forged Europe - in teh words of Goethe, "Europe was constructed along the [ilgrim roads to Santiago".
The second is the Pope's ardent promotion of the family. symbolized in the name of Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, as well as his admiration for Gaudi as an architectutral genius and as a Christian.
Catela cited Gaudi, who has been called 'God's architect', who said "Man does not create, he discovers".
The third is the importance of the visit to the Nen Deu center, which is "an affirmation of life and respect for human dignity, regardless of the person;s social, cultural or intellectual level", or health status, for that matter.
He confirmed that in Santiago, the pope will meet with Mariano Rajoy, leader of teh opposition Populr Party, after the Mass; and in Barcelonal he will be meeting with Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero at Barcelona airport before he takes off for Rome.
3,250 journalists have been accredited to cover the visit, and direct telecasts of the papal events are expected to reach 150-250 million viewers around the globe.
Gaudi's 'extraordinary' church:
Interview with the chief architect
in the current phase of its completion
By Patricia Navas
BARCELONA, Spain, NOV. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- One of the secrets of the success of the Holy Family Church of Barcelona, which receives between 8,000-10,000 visitors a day, is its novel architecture, according to the chief architect of the project, Jordi Bonet.
[Rather strange lead, since DUH! that's the most obvious thing about the structure!]
This Sunday, Benedict XVI will consecrate the church, known mainly by its Spanish name, Sagrada Família, and proclaim it a basilica.
The church, which is considered the masterpiece of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), has been under construction since 1882. While it's not expected to be completed until 2026, the church opened for public worship and tours in September.
"There is nothing like it in the world," Bonet indicates in the following interview with ZENIT. "The people who come must think that they will see something extraordinary."
Left, Jordi Bonet; center and right, Etsuko Sotoo, the Japense sculptor who is executing the sculptural adornments from Gaudi's designs. In center phot, he is holding a scale model of the complete church as Gaudi modelled it. The model have become one of the most popular tourist souvenirs from Barcelona.
In what state will Benedict XVI find the Holy Family Church?
We are working as much as possible, finishing things to leave it all just right, and we await him.
The church is already covered. It is not just the central nave, but the totality of the space that the church occupies, which includes, in addition to the latter, the lateral naves, the transept, the apsidal chapels, the ambulatory.
The church can be consecrated only when the structure is completely covered, so that wind and water won't get in.
For example, the cathedral of Barcelona had been consecrated since the 14th century, but the spire that culminates with the statue of St. Helena was not finished until 1901.
What remained to be done during the last month before Benedict XVI's arrival?
We had to pave the area of the facade of Glory. Finally, we have received the porphyry, the stone that Gaudí chose for the four supporting columns of the highest part of the church, the dome dedicated to Jesus Christ, 170 meters [557 feet] high. It comes from Iran and is the most resistant stone in the world.
And what remains to be done to finish the structure completely?
We are lacking almost 100 meters [328 feet] to raise the tower dedicated to Jesus. Also lacking are the domes dedicated to the Virgin and to the four Evangelists and the four towers of the Glory Facade dedicated to Peter, Paul, Andrew and James.
This will take years, but the interior of the church will be practically finished.... Except for the stained glass windows of the side naves, which will be installed as we receive the corresponding donations.
Do you have problems with funding?
We are all right in this aspect: We receive donations from all over the world. At first, the patrons of Sagrada Familia, the Spiritual Association of Devout Followers of St. Joseph, were paying for everything themselves, but then the people of Barcelona joined them, othere Spaniards and the people from outside Spain. For example, the holy water fonts come from the people of the Philippines. It is lovely to see that there are people from all over the world collaborating.
What does it mean for the sponsors that it is Benedict XVI who will consecrate the church?
It is an honor that the Pope is coming to Barcelona. The Holy Family is a church of the universal level.
Deep down, Gaudí was a pious man of faith, and a brilliant architect. All the other works he did were always by way of experiments that could serve for Sagrada Familia.
He applied there for the first time in the world a quantity of elements that he discovered in nature, which can be used in architecture: forms of double curvature, enormously resistant, that can be made with a Mediterranean technology: the Catalan vaults.
These new forms arouse true admiration in all those who visit the church. It is natural that the Pope wished to consecratei it.
How many people visit Sagrada Familia?
It's difficult to give an exact answer. Right now, between 8,000-10,000 people a day. It's been unique in the world, so many visitors to a church under construction.
The people who come immediately know they are seeing something extraordinary. A few months ago, the Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, visited the church and he wrote in the guest book: "I have admired the Dante of architecture."
What do you think is the secret of its success?
The architecture is very novel, there is nothing like it in the world.
Gaudí said that he wanted to surpass the Gothic. That is why there are no great buttresses or flying buttresses, but it has inclined columns. He designed the naves of the Holy Family as a forest, in which light enters from above.
When was construction of this emblematic church begun?
The first stone was laid on St. Joseph's day in 1882. The crypt was finished by Gaudí himself, who, by the way, was not the first architect of the church. The first was the diocesan architect Francesc del Villar.
The crypt having been finished, such a large donation was received that the Spiritual Association of Devout of Saint Joseph decided it should be a monumental church, and it went from one tower to 18.
Gaudí realized that it would take centuries to build, and that he would not see it finished. That is why he left his ideas modeled in mock-ups, which were rescued from the fire in his study in 1936, and from research, we have found the geometric laws that Gaudí had thought up.
He said that architecture had to be alive, and that life is shown with color and movement. With the help of geometry, he produced this new architecture with forms of double curvature generated by straight lines.
Later this idea was used, for example, in the Cathedral of Brasília, which is an enormous hyperboloid, and in the Philips Pavilion by Le Corbusier, which is a [cluster of nine hyperbolic paraboloids.] Gaudí, I repeat, was a genius.
Do you think that the completion is faithful to that original idea?
Of course. We have Gaudi's mock-ups on a 1:10 scale. Ask any architect if they make models on this scale at all! But he did it because it was something so new, and he needed the architects and donors to understand.
The mock-ups have been restored and we have deduced all the geometric laws that enable us to do exactly what he wanted.
What's the damage from construction of a high-speed train tunnel near the church?
It will probably damage it in time, because the effects on the subsoil are not immediate. They have made us waste much time and since 2007, we have been in litigation against this tunnel, but the courts have yet to decide.
This has cost us much energy and time, fighting against something that seems incredible that they could even think of it. Technology is not everything.... We think the tunnel idea is folly.
[Imagine if Italy built a tunnel for high-speed trains next to the Vatican!]
When do you think the church will be finished?
I don't know. If I set any date, I would be telling you a lie. We don't know what's going to happen. More than 10-12 years, certainly. When he was asked this question Gaudi answered: "My client is not in a hurry."
[The goal is to finish it completely by 2026, 100 years since Gaudi's death.]
The main facade of the Church, the Facade of the Nativity, with the Holy Family icon that gives the church its name. The way the sculptures adorning the church seem to 'grow' from the stone is one of the more obvious wonders of Gaudi's genius.
Elizabeth Lev offers more background on Sagrada Familia:
Gaudi's church:
An expression of Catalonia's nationalism
by Elizabeth Lev
ROME, Nov. 4 (ZENIT.org) - This week, Benedict XVI will visit Spain on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and then he will consecrate the Church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, conferring on it the title of basilica.
The new honorific for this church has left some perplexed. The strange forms and style of the Sagrada Familia are confusing to many Catholics, especially Americans. While no one doubts the wisdom of Pope Benedict's decisions, it seems that many wish that he chose a more traditionally attractive church. [This is obviously not Lev's opinion, but it's a view that surprises me, having experienced the hypnotic fascination of Sagrada Familia on several visits since 1968. Even in its unfinished state and purely from the exterior, it elicited the same supreme awe inspired by the great Gothic interior of Mont St. Michel, with the added magic of Gaudi's arborescent/floral fantasies.]
I have been fascinated by this church for over nine years, ever since I started accompanying my students to Barcelona for the first weekend of Spring break. I would take them a first day to the medieval churches of Barcelona, and our director would take them the next day to the works of Gaudì.
The continuity between Barcelona's great age of Christian architecture in the 14th century and the Sagrada Familia built at the height of Catalonian nationalism is startling.
The Sagrada Famila was the last architectural work of Antonio Gaudì, a Catalonian architect who lived from 1852 to 1926. Gaudì died while working on the church after being hit by a tram, and his cause for canonization has been opened. After almost a century the church remains incomplete, but it is one of the most interesting works-in-progress in the world.
Gaudì lived during a of period of resurgence in Catalan nationalist sentiment and he was a member of the "Catalan Association of Scientific Excursions," dedicated to visiting the territory's historic monuments.
This love of the land, architecture and culture of Catalonia was beautifully expressed in the artistic movement of Modernismo, of which Gaudì was a major figure. He incorporated the national symbol, a shield with four bars into his architecture as well as the theme of St. George, Catalonia's patron saint. Gaudì was even arrested once for answering a Spanish soldier in Catalan.
The Catalonian nationalists rallied to their churches during their independence movement to the point where Dictator Primo de Rivera closed Barcelona's churches to stop a nationalist celebration.
Barcelona boasts several beautiful Gothic churches, including Santa Maria del Mar and the cathedral, co-dedicated to the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia, a Catalonian virgin martyr. Both churches were built in the 14th century during the reign of King Jaume II when Barcelona was at the apex of its commercial success.
The churches display a unique view of Gothic architecture; the interior is very high and the columns splay at the top to reach across the vault in slender ribs. The structure recalls nature---the columns lining the apse of Santa Maria del Mar look like the tall native poplar trees of the region with the sunlight filtering into the church.
[The two churches are about a 10-minute leisurely walk apart through Barcelona's Gothic quarter, conveniently just off the Ramblas promenade - and for someone raised in the Hispanic Catholic tradition, it was always a convenient and most pleasant two-church 'visita Iglesia' anytime! Santa Maria del Mar is a little Gothic jewel, compared to the far larger Cathedral which has all the features of a grand medieval church - including crypt, choir stalls, adjoining walled courtyard lined by chapels, and that magnificent facade.]
In the cathedral, the intricate web of ribs and vaults over the ceiling and out towards the spires seem to be more organic than mineral, like vines curling around a trellis.
Six hundred years later, Antonio Gaudì, who loved the nature of his native land, studied the great architectural feats of his nation's past. These two elements, mixed with a great deal of imagination, are the foundation of the Sagrada Familia.
The high external spires, which symbolize the twelve apostles, four evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Christ himself, echo the high spires of the cathedral. The interior maintains the single nave and four aisles which is the form of the earliest Christian basilicas, St. Peter's, St. Paul's and St. John Lateran. The high columns branch out in a web that seems even more organic than Santa Maria del Mar, forming mesmerizing geometric patterns in space.
This man-made space echoes Catalonia's beloved landscape but also recalls the great mystics and saints from this land such as St. Anthony Mary Claret and St. Francisco Coll Guitart in its fascinating forms and captivating upward articulation.
Antonio Gaudì, long before the European Union would attempt to do away with the Christian roots of Europe, gave his nation a church that would bind Catalonia's national identity to its faith like bricks to mortar.
The Sagrada Familia is not the fruit of the modern quest for novelty as many have thought, but more an expression of St. Augustine's description of the Triune God, as a "Beauty ever ancient, ever new."
I've been ignoring the following item which has been highly popular for media outlets around the world, judging from the headlines cited in the daily online news roundups this week. I am posting this item simply to place on record what it's all about, and I hope not to have to refer to it again. I think it is profane, not because of the act, but because of why they are doing it. It's a silly and childish act of spite against the Pope, to begin with....
Spain's gays and lesbians
to stage 'kiss-in' during Pope's visit
by Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Nov. 3, 2010
Spanish gays and lesbians will welcome Pope Benedict XVI to their country at the weekend with a massive homosexual kiss-in to be staged in front of Barcelona's cathedral.
Organisers have invited gays and lesbians from around Spain to congregate in Barcelona during the papal visit on Sunday to form what, on their Facebook page, they call a "queer kissing flashmob".
The plan is for participants to meet at the city's Gothic cathedral and start kissing as soon as the Pope steps out of the building at 10am.
[It's not on the schedule for the Pope to be in the Cathedral Sunday morning. He will leave the Archbishop's Palace near the Cathedral by Popemobile at 9 a.m. headed for Sagrada Familia ,where he has a 9:30 private meeting with the King and Queen of Spain before the Dedication Mass.... I can see how the demonstrators can occupy the large plaza in front of the Cathedral that the Popemobile will have to pass, but police will probably have them cordoned off to allow regular folk to be present. And/or they can have the Popemobile get underway toward Sagrada Familia without having to pass by the plaza, using one of the side streets to get onto the Popemobile route.]
"No placards, no flags, no shouting and no slogans. Only kissing allowed," the Facebook page reads.
"When Benedict XVI passes in front of us we will kiss, man-to-man and woman-to-woman," Marylene Carole, one of the organisers, told the Spanish news agency EFE.
A whistle or horn will mark the beginning of a two-minute period during which couples are expected to maintain mouth-to-mouth contact. "Once the kiss is over we will go on our way as if nothing had happened," she said.
Some 1,500 people have pledged, via Facebook, to take part in the event. Invitations have been sent out via the social networking site to 12,000 more.
The planned kiss-in has provoked the fury of some Spanish Catholics, and even saw the group's page temporarily erased by Facebook....
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/11/2010 15:09]