PROTEST AGAINST THE POPE'S VISIT TO SPAIN
So, what are we to make of the Pope’s visit to Spain last week?
I am really not sure particularly having read today that the visit earned Madrid some 160 million Euros (or, to be more precise, 52.8 million Euros after costs) – which seems an odd way to justify the Pope’s appearance in Spain by the authorities. It also sounds a little like ‘spin’ to take away the ire of Spanish protesters who were vociferous in their opposition to the Spanish government spending so much national money on the Pope’s visit.
And yet it has to be said that the Pope’s visit to Spain would be hard to declare a failure. After all, some 1 to 1.5 million people (depending upon who you believe) attended the World Youth Day mass at Cuatro Vientos airport to the south of Madrid. By anyone’s standards this is a huge number, made all the more impressive by being in the middle of August during ferociously hot weather.
Clearly, Catholicism still appears to have considerable support in Spain although, in fairness, World Youth Day is an international Catholic celebration and was attended by many foreigners. But that does not take away from a substantial Spanish attendance.
I am somewhat surprised by the all of this as I could count on one hand the number of genuinely religious Spaniards I know (excluding the elderly). Indeed, Spain now largely mimics many North European countries, such as the UK, where attendance at church is miniscule – if you negate ‘obligatory’ events such as marriages, funerals and christenings.
In fact, evidently Spain had, per capita, the lowest church going population of any European country in 1900. This was for a variety of reasons but not least because the Spanish church was seen as oppressive by the majority of Spanish people. Certainly, it had a reputation for ‘siding’ with the aristocracy and landowners and during the horrific Spanish Civil War (1936-39) was almost completely partisan in its support for General Franco and the Nationalist cause.
Of course, General Franco made church attendance pretty much compulsory and there are elders in my village who still tell of the consequence of not attending church on Sunday – an enforced appointment in front of the Mayor first thing on Monday morning to explain their absence!
So, Spain has long tended to appear far more dogmatic about Catholicism than it was in reality. Certainly, whilst Catholicism is an integral part of the culture of Spain the country has no state religion and Spain is a secular state – although, at times, all of this seems somewhat incredible. Certainly, many fiestas have a strong and overt religious basis and, invariably, processions around the villages and towns involve the carrying, by suitably serious looking individuals, of some effigy or other from the local church. However, I think much of this has to do with the maintenance of ancient tradition rather than any religious fervor.
Needless to say, there will have been something ironic about the Pope’s visit to Spain to celebrate World Youth Day given that something like half of the ‘youth’ of working age in Spain are out of work. They form a greater part of the Indignado Movement in Spain and face a desperate future with little work available and, possibly, even less, in prospect. To them the Pope’s visit was a waste of national money that could have been better spent on producing jobs (although quite how remains a mystery to me). Certainly, it is doubtful that they will be greatly impressed by the fact that restaurant and hotel owners in Madrid made good money during the Pope’s visit.
Either way, measuring the success of the Pope’s visit to Spain is probably not easy. I can only hope that the arguments about what it cost and what profit it made does not colour the fact that the visit of the Pontiff was undoubtedly made by him in good faith – and some well meant spiritual support in hard times should be welcomed rather than condemned…