Barcelona: Gay Kiss-In to Protest Pope

En route to dedicate Barcelona's famous but unfinished Sagrada Familia church today, Pope Benedict had to pass a crowd of kissing gay couples - 100 to 500, depending on which news report you read - who organized the kiss-in to protest the Pope's denunciation of gay marriage as "intrinsically evil," a theme he alluded to in his homily at the church, while also denouncing Spain's abortion law and its secular, "anticlerical" trend.  Spain was the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2005.

Barcelona, from all I've read, is something like the San Francisco of Spain, with a large gay population. Other protestors turned out as well, like this woman whose sign, one news story reported, translates to something like "Condoms save, the Pope damns."

Feminists and others also turned out to protest the Pope's visit. I get the sense of a few phrases on these signs, but can any of my truckbuddies translate?

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia greeted the pope, were present in the consecration mass, and bid him farewell at the airport, but Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was conspicuously absent and only met the Catholic patriarch for a private meeting in the airport minutes before he returned to Rome.

Mr. Zapatero decided to visit Spanish troops in Afghanistan throughout most of the pope’s visit and publicly only shook his hand, highlighting the tense relations with one of the Vatican’s closest traditional allies in Europe.

The fallout in relations between the current government and the Vatican, however, is not seen as a real challenge from the state. That would probably not be tolerated by a majority of Spaniards, analysts say.

Recent surveys show the number of practicing Catholics is dropping fast, to around 20 percent currently, mirroring a broader European trend, but the vast majority of Spaniards still declare themselves Catholics. And the Catholic Church has great perks here, starting with around $9 billion annually in different forms of direct and indirect government funds from tax revenue to financing of religious schools. The Spanish Church is the second biggest property owner in the country, trailing only the government. . . .

Spain is not officially secular, as most western states are. Rather, it is legally neutral in terms of religion, implying it is a faith-based state. In practice that has translated into huge benefits for the Catholic Church that leaders from other religions, namely Muslims, Protestants, and Jews, say are unconstitutional because they are discriminated against when getting access to government aid and public space.

In Santiago, Benedict XVI met the leader of the main opposition Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, who has promised to turn back secular laws passed by the Zapatero government if elected.

Britain's Sky News has a video report here.




Honk to Heretic Tom at The Gospel According to Hate for the story idea.