sex marriage legislation and comforted relatives of last week’s worst subway crash in Spanish history.
There was reportedly mild irritation among the pope’s entourage that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who met the pontiff for talks Saturday, refused to attend Sunday’s pro-family mass on the outskirts of the Mediterranean city of Valencia.
The gathering at a futuristic museum, attended by an open-air congregation of at least hundreds of thousands, marked the end of the Fifth World Meeting of Families in Valencia.
Under a sweltering heat, the pontiff urged his audience, including three generations of the Spanish royal family, not to walk away from family values. The pope, wearing green vestments and a gold miter, said the family is "founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman."
GAY MARRIAGE
The Socialist government has angered the Vatican by introducing liberal reforms such as gay marriage and fast-track divorce in this mainly Roman Catholic nation. The pope said that every family has its origin in God, and "at the origin of every human being there is not something haphazard or chance, but a loving plan of God."
He spoke from an altar erected on a bridge over a dry bed that was once the city’s river. Pope Benedict XVI said on Saturday that "government leaders and legislators" should "reflect on the evident benefits which homes in peace and harmony assure to individuals and the family, the neuralgic center of society." He stressed that "the purpose of laws is the integral good of man, in response to his needs and aspirations," according to comments monitored by BosNewsLife.
"This good is a significant help to society, of which it cannot be deprived," he stressed. "My desire," the pope said, "is to propose the central role for the church and society of the family, based on marriage."
SUBWAY CRASH
He also prayed at the scene of a subway crash in Valencia which killed 42 people last Monday, July 3. The Pope met relatives of some of the underground crash victims. "We ask God’s comfort for those who remain and those who left us," he said. The crash happened when the train entered a station at double its normal speed, investigators said.
While not everyone in Spain apparently approves of the pope’s pro-family opinions, Catholics welcomed the pontiff’s words. "It’s a very brave message when he says that just as in nature, natural matrimony is the union between man and woman," The Associated Press quoted Fernando Perez, a 59-year-old Valencia resident, as saying.
"For me, the problem is not that society is becoming more secular but that people just don’t care about anything." (With reports from Spain, the Vatican and BosNewsLife Research).
