SPAIN: Madrid sets the stage for Pope Benedict's arrival for World Youth Week amidst protests over the cost of the Pontiff's visit in the financially-challenged country

Record ID: 1531620

  • Title: SPAIN: Madrid sets the stage for Pope Benedict's arrival for World Youth Week amidst protests over the cost of the Pontiff's visit in the financially-challenged country
  • Date: 19th August 2011
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (AUGUST 18, 2011) (REUTERS) ( EARLY MORNING SCENES) STATUE IN PUERTA DEL SOL SQUARE METRO SIGN AND POLICE VARIOUS OF POLICE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JULIAN DIAS, MADRID RESIDENT, SAYING: "If they (the protesters) did other things they would be entertained with that, or maybe subconsciously it is envy because they don't have that spirituality. In any case the image they portray is shameful, but we will survive." VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPER STAND (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GONZALO, MADRID RESIDENT, SAYING: "I think it's wrong because they knew there would be violence, because if you let something anti and something pro get together in the end something will break, that is basic. They should have had the demo one day and the other thing another day."
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2011 21:37
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Politics,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA47GS2VNQB0TVPKE2ECFFGHG5S
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Pope Benedict was due to arrive in Madrid on Thursday (August 18) as protests against the cost of his visit threatened to overshadow World Youth Week celebrations.
    Madrid's Puerta del Sol square was the setting for violent clashes between police and demonstrators on Wednesday (August 17) at a time of growing public anxiety and economic hardship in the country.
    Thousands of protesters of all ages walked in the old city centre under the slogan: 'Nothing for the Pope from my taxes,' as hundreds of thousands of young people gathered in the capital of the mainly Catholic country to celebrate the youth event.
    Critics have put the cost of the visit at around 100 million euros but the government has declined to give a figure.
    On Thursday morning Madrid residents had differing views over the clashes that took place the previous night.
    "If they (the protesters) did other things they would be entertained with that, or maybe subconsciously it is envy because they don't have that spirituality. In any case the image they portray is shameful, but we will survive," said Julian Dias, a Madrid resident.
    For Gonzalo, another Madrid resident, the clashes were inevitable and he blamed police for letting demonstrators and pilgrims meet at Puerta del Sol square.
    "I think it's wrong because they (the police) knew there would be violence, because if you let something anti and something pro get together in the end something will break, that is basic. They should have had the demo one day and the other thing another day," he said.
    Javier blamed the World Youth Week visitors for the trouble and called on the Pope to calm them down.
    "For sure it wasn't normal yesterday to see Christians worked up against the other people, but I think when people are in a crowd they lose perception. I don't know what the Pope will do tomorrow to calm them down," he said.
    Earlier on Wednesday the Vatican granted priests the right to forgive the sin of abortion when hearing the confessions of hundreds of thousands of young people attending the Roman Catholic youth festival in Madrid this week.
    The termination of pregnancy is a sin punishable by ex-communication under church law. The World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims will attend a mass confession in the presence of Pope Benedict on Saturday (August 20) in a central Madrid park.
    Two hundred white portable confessional cabins have been erected in Madrid's Retiro Park where hundreds of priests will take confessions in different languages from the pilgrims who have travelled to Spain from around the world.
    The pontiff will sit in one of the booths on Saturday morning to hear confessions from three visitors, ahead of a mass with up to 6,000 seminarians.
    The Vatican already announced on Aug. 11 that it had authorised a plenary, or full indulgence, to all the young people attending the celebrations.
    An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven and is traditionally granted to WYD pilgrims.
    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an open secularist, has clashed with the church over abortion and has changed the law during his tenure to make it easier for women seeking to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
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