Monday, August 22, 2011

Pope Tells Pilgrims to Stay True to Their Beliefs

Pope Benedict XVI closed the religious ceremonies of World Youth Day on Sunday with a giant Mass in which he told young people to “swim against the tide” and abide by the principles of the Catholic Church despite broader changes in society. 

The culmination of World Youth Day — a six-day event that drew more than one million pilgrims to Madrid — took place at an air base on the outskirts of the city. 

Though the event was marred earlier this week by clashes between the police and protesters condemning its cost, the huge and ebullient welcome for the pope provided a powerful demonstration of his influence, even at a time when church attendance has been dwindling in Catholic countries like Spain.

At the end of Sunday’s Mass, the pope announced that the next such event would be in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Until then, he told those at the service, in Portuguese, that they “will be swimming against the tide in a society with a relativistic culture, which wishes neither to seek nor hold on to the truth.”

Young pilgrims had started to gather Saturday morning at the air base ahead of an evening vigil, in order to get closer to the altar, which was 220 yards long, draped in white and crowned by a giant, treelike parasol, made of interwoven golden rods and designed to protect the pope from the brutal heat.

Although organizers set aside an area the size of 48 soccer fields to allow pilgrims to spend the night,  thousands had to be turned away because of lack of space.

With the temperature at around 100 degrees, and despite eight fire trucks patrolling the area to hose down the crowd, almost 900 people required medical attention on Saturday because of heat-related problems.

Still, the weather broke abruptly just after the pope arrived for the Saturday service, forcing an interruption in the vigil and the cancellation of the communion while the pope took shelter from the wind and rain under a white umbrella. 

When the storm passed, the pope resumed his homily by thanking his audience for their “joy and resistance.” and for being “stronger than the rain.”

While about 70 percent of Spain’s residents consider themselves to be Catholics, the country has witnessed a sharp fall in church attendance, with the number of civil weddings overtaking religious ones in 2009.

Still, the economic downturn has shown the importance of religious charities, at a time when the government has imposed severe austerity cuts to help resolve its debt problems.

About 800,000 people in Spain fell into poverty from 2007 and 2010, according to a report published last month by Cáritas, a Catholic charity.   

Beside being an opportunity for the Catholic Church to strengthen its support, the event should be seen as a call for “greater social engagement,” said Cristóbal Fones, a priest and musician visiting from Chile. 

Still, most of the teenagers, dressed in the event’s official yellow T-shirt and waving their national flags, said the highlight had been seeing the pope. 

“I can’t think of a happier day in my life,” said Roberto Avalos, a 17-year-old who was among a large contingent from Ecuador.

Beginning on Tuesday, Mr. Avalos and friends plan to spend several days in Italy before returning home. “I’ve got as far as Europe so it also makes sense to make the most of it and discover more than just Madrid,” he said.   

Ahead of the visit, the Spanish foreign ministry eased immigration requirements and scrapped visa fees for pilgrims from Ecuador and several other countries who would normally struggle to enter.

Earlier in the week, the downtown square of Puerta del Sol was the scene of small but violent clashes between the police and protesters who objected to the cost of the visit, as well as the blurring of lines between a Catholic celebration and the secularism that is enshrined in the Spanish constitution. 

On Friday, the Spanish interior ministry ordered an investigation into whether the police had used excessive force against the protestors. 

In November, during his last visit to Spain, the pope ruffled feathers by warning against the "strong and aggressive secularism" that was developing in Spain. 

The Catholic Church has led opposition to several reforms adopted under the Spanish government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, including the legalization of same-sex marriages.

This time, the pope, who spend four days in Madrid, avoided any comment that could heighten political tensions ahead of a general election in November.

Instead, the Spanish government used the event to seek the Vatican’s backing for its plans to convert the Valley of the Fallen, the large underground basilica built by Francisco Franco to honor those who died for the Fascist victory in Spain’s civil war, into “a place of reconciled memory.” 

The government also called on the church to increase its influence in the Basque Country to help break up  ETA, the separatist group that has killed more than 800 since the late 1960s.

Organizers have insisted that the event’s budget of 50 million euros (about $72 million) had been covered by registration fees and corporate sponsors. 

The government and the regional authorities of Madrid also forecast that the event would yield financial benefits for a Spanish economy that has been severely hit by the global financial crisis.

The arrival of myriad pilgrims, at a time when Madrid is normally deserted by its beach-seeking inhabitants, certainly transformed Spain’s capital. 

While the closing of main avenues disrupted traffic, many local business owners welcomed the visitors. Manuel Rojas, owner of a restaurant that advertised special menus, estimated that revenue was about 15 percent higher than during a normal August.

“It doesn’t ensure economic salvation, but it’s certainly business that we wouldn’t normally be getting,” he said. 

Brazil added another major international event to its busy calendar on Sunday when the pope announced that Rio would host the next World Youth Day.

Rio will also welcome the 2016 Olympics, while the World Cup is set to be held in soccer-mad Brazil in 2014.  

The pope was scheduled to leave from Madrid’s Barajas airport at 6.30 p.m., after a final meeting with pilgrims at a nearby exhibition center.