November 8, 2010
El Periodico
One huge local and international event that happens to take place locally in Barcelona was the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. He came to officially consecrate La Sagrada Familia into a basilica. Although La Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi, is not complete and won’t be for about 30 more years, it is still one of the most impressive and breath- taking churches ever built. For this reason, the Popa wanted to make a journey to visit and along the way stop at Santiago de Compostela as well. I happen to live just a few blocks from Sagrada Familia so this was something extra special for me, to see all the action and commotion going on. This really huge event is also a very controversial one. Many Catalan people protested the Popa coming to Barcelona because of the money that was put into making it all happen. The cost to the taxpayers was the main issue of the protest and got people very upset, as estimates were about 3.7 to 5 million euros that the state would spend on security and logistics for the Popa. Protestors were very upset that all that money would be spent on having the Popa come for just a day, instead of making the trip worthwhile or worth the money. However, El Periodico reported that the Barcelona Archbishopric had raised donations of 500,000 euros to fund the visit, which was much more than the state spending. Not only were people upset about spending the state’s money, many groups such as gay and lesbian planned to kiss in front of the Popa to protest his anti- gay activism.
Although there was much turmoil regarding these issues, from what I saw people were very supportive and excited to see such a dominant worldly figure take the time to recognize La Sagrada Familia’s beauty and Gaudi’s masterpiece.
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