Benedict XVI was in Spain honoring St. James of Compostela -- one of Catholicism's worst murderers as he killed
every Moor he saw in sight! The Way of St. James is paved with countless skulls of Muslims! St. James was called aptly as "Saint James the Moor-slayer". Perhaps if Benedict was in Compostela apologizing to the Muslims for the murders of their ancestors, there might be more possibility for peace between Muslims and Christians. Instead Benedict XVI is honoring St. James the murderer! What a similar criminal company Benedict XVI keeps as he himself covered-up, condoned, aided and abetted the most heinous crimes against children, the Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions committed by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army of the 20th century! And Benedict XVI is on the road attacking "secularism" while - at the same time - he himself want to be recognized as a "secular" head of the "secular" Vatican State (so he can take advantage of "secular" taxpayers millions of dollars for his personal security as he reincarnate God's flesh in the sorcery of the Mass or Eucharist).
(click image to enlarge, see the big swords of St. James the Moor-Slayer and the Muslims and their skulls under his horse)
St. James is depicted as St. James the Moor Slayer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James
Benedict XVI and the Vatican act and fit perfectly the definitions and characteristics of pathological liars. They are pathological liars - or
"mythomaniacs" – who are suffering from histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. They change their story all the time. They act very defensively when you question their statements. They believe what they say is true, when everyone else knows it isn't.
They lie when it is very easy to tell the truth. They lie to get sympathy, to look better, to save their butt, etc. They fool people at first but once they get to know them, no one believes anything they ever say. May have a personality disorder. Extremely manipulative.
Has been caught in lies repeatedly. Never fesses up to the lies. Is a legend in their own minds. Here are things to ask yourself: How could this many things happen to one person? Would you believe these stories if someone else told you? Think back to the beginning: you had red flags and alarms going off in you head. Learn to trust your instincts. The pathological liar on the other hand, IS aware that they are lying BUT will go to extremes to make you believe that they are truthful. They appear to believe their own lies BUT in truth, they know their lies are just that, lies. But because their efforts are constantly backing up their lies, it appears to us that they actually believe their lies. (1)
According to Psychiatry,
mythomania is a compulsion to embroider the truth, engage in exaggeration, or tell lies…or relate incredible imaginary adventures as if they had really happened. (2)
Benedict XVI is the mythomaniac of the 21st centuryBenedict XVI manifested his mythomaniac character at best during the Holy Week of 2010 when he started name-calling the media especially the New York Time’s expose of his personal cover-up of priests-pedophiles as “Cheap Gossip". (See Timeline of Benedict XVI’s personal cover-up of a German pedophile priest when he was Archbishop of Munich, Germany
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/timeline-of-benedict-xvis-personal.html No amount of ‘historic apology’ Benedict makes will matter -- unless he fires the first criminals Cardinal Bernard Law & Cardinal Roger Mahony
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html Then he changed his tune and expressed “apology and sorrow” to victims of pedophile-priests during his trip to Malta in April (See Benedict XVI’s phony sorrow, superficial shame & crocodile tears in Malta; how long will he continue his Papal lies and Papal parody?
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/benedict-xvis-phony-sorrow-superficial.html. But then, in June, at the glorious gathering of 15,000 priests for the closing ceremony for the Year of Priests, he laid all the blame on the Devil. So in the end, according to the Gospel of Benedict XVI, it is the Devil really and not Benedict XVI (and the Vatican) who led the cover-up, aiding and abetting of thousands of priests pedophiles while he was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!! (See Anti-Semitism card & the Vatican defense circus for Benedict XVI the guilty despot of 1.2 billion Catholics the people in denial
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/anti-semitism-card-vatican-defense.htmlDo you 1.1 billion Catholics see how Benedict XVI manipulates you and the world of his crimes by lying, exaggerating and changing his supposedly “infallible” words from gossip to apology to the Devil? Benedict XVI is the most famous and revered mythomaniac of the 21st century who has a “histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder and he changes his story all the time”. Oh, and then he belittled victims’ sufferings by laying all their suffering on Christ’s Crucifix at Westminster Cathedral in England (as if - it is that automatic and simple - to transfer one’s burden to Christ!) (See Who’s responsible & to blame: The Devil or Benedict XVI-Cardinal Ratzinger? Satan as scapegoat for Vatican's chaotic sex scandals
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/whos-responsible-to-blame-devil-or.htmlDo you 1.1 billion Catholics see how Benedict XVI is a pathological liar by using his UK papal trip? -- how
histrionic, cold-hearted and callous Benedict XVI really is towards victims of Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions committed by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army as he simply laid all their sufferings on Christ’s Crucifix. This “Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions” - include Fr. Marcial Maciel, the serial pedophile criminal but founder of the Legionaries of Christ and Zenit.org! No one can be more histrionic than Benedict XVI with his ever-enlarging papal tiara and papal colourful robes which he uses as props to make palatable his ever pathological lies which he pronounces before the world to see! The mythomaniac of the 20th Century is John Paul II (See John Paul II is the Pope of Injustice of the 20th & 21st Century and Fr. Marcial Maciel should be excommunicated posthumously
http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/10/john-paul-ii-is-pope-of-injustice-of.html See St. Josemaria Escriva, John Paul II & Benedict XVI: the new Vatican Trinity
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/st-josemaria-escriva-john-paul-ii.html The second mythomaniac trait of Benedict XVI was manifested in his recent trip to the United Kingdom. There Benedict XVI loudly condemned “secularism” while at the same time he created a new office at the Vatican to battle “secularism”. Benedict XVI wants to eradicate “secularism” especially in Europe but he wants to be a full part of “secularism” and its secular benefits at the same time.
Benedict XVI claims to be the infallible Pope, leader of the Catholic religion where “Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation”. But at the same time he claims to be the “secular leader” of a “secular nation the Vatican” (actually it’s only a building and a garden).
Benedict XVI claims to be a “secular” leader equal to the “secular” Presidents and Prime Ministers of all “secular” countries – where there is complete separation of church and state, where there is freedom of speech and free voting, judicial courts and jails for criminals. At the Vatican, there is no jailtime for criminals but is a haven for criminals as it administer only forgiveness within the Sacrament of Penance, there is no freedom of speech, there is no free voting of Cardinals and Bishops, there is only the absolute dictatorship by the Pope and totalitarianism wherein or Catholics are “silenced” like Jon Sobrino and Liberation Theology theologians (for criticising the hypocrisy of the Pope, imagine if CNN were to be shut down for criticising Obama), there is the instant excommunication of women attempting priestly ordination, and where children’s voice are not heard (like these victims of pedophile priests who were denied a foot at St. Peter’s Square last Sunday, see news below).
The Vatican is a one-and-only church. There is no separation of church and state at the Vatican, therefore, it cannot be a “secular” nation or a “secular” country and the pope should not be accorded a “secular” President’s welcome in other “secular” countries. The United Nations must stop and end once and for all -- the “secular” membership -- of the religious- Vatican-church.
Now why do the Untied Nations and all these “secular” countries continue to recognize Benedict and XVI as the “secular” Head of State? Answer: Because of God-and-Mammon-money. Benedict XVI and the Vatican are both God and Mammon!!! The Vatican Bank is an off-shore-haven-and-heaven for the corrupt stolen money of dictators (like Marcos
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2008/02/benedict-xvi-marcos-gold-billions.html) and millionaires and billionaires and the Pope, Cardinals and the Vatican trillion dollars Bank are dealt with political immunity and therefore are the perfect conduits for corrupt money passages between countries and between international banks. See the money laundering 23 million euros of the Vatican to Germany JP Morgan Bank under investigation in Italy
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/09/vatican-bank-under-investigation-for.html. The Pope and Cardinals have diplomatic immunity and they are the perfect conduit of illegal money between countries!
The third mythomaniac trait of Benedict XVI is in the Eucharist where he claims to have the exclusive all-male powers to reincarnate God’s flesh in 9-seconds, see
http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/2010/01/magisterium-benedict-versus-holy-mary.html According to Psychiatry, mythomania is a compulsion to embroider the truth, engage in exaggeration, or tell lies…or relate incredible imaginary adventures as if they had really happened. The Sacrament of the Priesthood, Eucharist and Penance are all sacraments of mythomania; they are all “imaginary adventures as if they had really happened”. We exposed them here- When it comes to justice, secularism trumps Catholicism. Sacraments of Penance, Eucharist & Priesthood are worthless in our justice system
http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/when-it-comes-to-justice-secularism.html The fourth mythomaniac trait of Benedict XVI is his claim that Latin is the “official language” of the Holy See when he himself can barely compose or speak a sentence in Latin. Benedict XVI can “read” Latin for the Mass but he cannot converse it. No one who works in the Holy See, the Vatican, and all priests, Cardinals and Bishops today can speak Latin. So how can Latin be the official language of the Holy See? Latin is Benedict XVI and the Vatican mythomania compulsion to embroider the truth, engage in exaggeration, or tell lies…or relate incredible imaginary adventures as if they had really happened. Latin is the official language “as if” the Pope and the members of the Holy See can speak Latin. See Latin is not a mother tongue and therefore cannot be the “official language” of the Vatican. Why must the Vatican Bank be above all banks?
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/10/latin-is-not-mother-tongue-and.htmlThe fifth mythomaniac trait of Benedict XVI is his claim that the Vatican is an independent state (for an exclusive all-male hierarchy). The Vatican expenses alone rival that of Buckingham Palace by the millions and it is the Catholics from around the world who sustain it. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics go to St. Peter’s Square for Angelus and tour every week.
But why was a small of group of Catholic survivors of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army not allowed to demonstrate within the St. Peter’s Square? These are Catholics too. St. Peter’s Square should belong to all Catholics – especially the weakest children within the Catholic Church. These survivors are the weakest and poorest Catholics who have suffered the most heinous crimes against children in the history of Catholicism. They simply wanted to demonstrate – peacefully – within St. Peter’s Square. But why were they denied to stand at St. Peter’s Square which should belong to ALL Catholics? Why were they not allowed to have their voices heard? The answer is simple. The Vatican is a pathologic liar who “never fesses up to their own lies. They believe they are a legend in their own minds”, a legend that the Vatican and its St. Peter’s Square is a Holy Place. Therefore this small group of survivors of priest pedophilia would mar this “sacred place”. But as history has proven it, the “sacred place” Vatican and St. Peter’s Square have been the seat and venues of lies, crimes, deceit, theft, murders and tortures of women and heretics, of crimes after crimes against humanity for centuries!
So who are the Catholics only allowed with St. Peter’s Square? Wealthy Catholics who can afford to pay to have their photos taken with the pope; Catholics who can afford to fly and tour the Vatican museums – a corrupt museum that hoarded stolen artefacts from countries that Catholic (evil) colonizers stole and pillaged from poor colonized countries especially in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Now, do you 1.1 billion Catholic see what and how Benedict XVI and the Vatican are the worst pathological liars on the planet Earth? If you don’t, you will eventually see it when the Vatican Palace will self-destruct to mere rubbles into a big black hole in the ground as predicted by the Third Secret of Fatima. The sins of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army are worse than the Mark of Cain on the foreheads of Benedict XVI, the Opus Dei and all Cardinals and Bishops who aided and abetted for over a quarter of century the Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions committed by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. John Paul II can only deserve the fires of Hell for being the Holy Father of pathological liars. His books on theology, doctrines and speeches during his world trotting 26+ years papacy are all but empty clanging cymbals and charade as St. Paul said it. See John Paul II the Great clashing cymbal of St. Paul
http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-great-clashing-cymbal-of.html
John L. Allen Jr is the worst pathological liar journalist on earthJohn L. Allen Jr. is the highest paid journalist on the planet; he is an exemplary pathological liar and the Pied Piper of the Vatican using his weekly pulpit in his NCR columns. Notice how he defends the Vatican in his most recent article: ‘Vatican asks victims to see church as ally in fighting abuse”. Now how sick and wacko is that title and statement? The Vatican has been the main guilty perpetrator of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for over a quarter of a century and now they claim that they are suddenly “allies of victims”?? How can the Vatican who harboured serial pedophile priests suddenly be the allies of their own victims? (That’s like telling the Jews that the Nazis are now their allies!) John L. Allen Jr is the wacko Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the field of journalism. He is the highest paid Pied Piper who will continue to mislead the English speaking Catholics and other journalists to the cave of deception and Hell. John Allen is a perfect pathological liar: “The pathological liar IS aware that they are lying BUT will go to extremes to make you believe that they are truthful.”
Imagine what exclusive access John L. Allen Jr has with the Vatican - from his million dollars abode in New York.
The Vatican tells him - exclusively - by phone what to write about in his All things Catholic NCR --- and other journalists in the world must depend solely and be at the mercy of John Allen Jr. regarding Vatican daily and weekly agenda. John L. Allen Jr column used to be called “The Word from Rome” until he moved to New York because American Catholics pay him thousands of dollars for speeches. But most of all, the Vatican needs him to be in the USA to control and deceive the American Catholics and the world who follow the American media and CNN. And now he will give a six-hour seminar at the Villa Maria Community Center in Villa Maria, Lawrence County about “the future of the Catholic Church”? A future of more pathological lies and deceptions and mythomania about the Popes and the Vatican!!!
John L. Allen Jr GO to HELL and join John Paul II and his Pedophile Priests Army there!
Opus Dei owes the Jesuits and Lombardi a big favour for saving their butts
Opus Dei covered-up, aided and abetted the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for over a quarter of a century and hence are the worst complicit in priest pedophilia.
Opus Dei controls the Vatican and all appointments of voting Cardinals and Bishops and if anyone noticed none of the newly 245 Cardinals were Jesuits. That was in line with the hatred of St. Josemaria Escriva’s obsession to annihilate the Jesuits. His famous dictum was: "I would prefer a million times that a daughter of mine die without the Last Sacraments than that they be administered to her by a Jesuit".
The Pope and the Opus Dei obeying St? Josemaria made sure that the new Jesuit Superior General Fr. Alfonso Nicolas --- and the 225 Jesuits at their General Congregation 35 from all over the world --- did not celebrate one single Mass with Benedict XVI and the Jesuit Gesu Church is only a stone throw away near the Vatican Palace. The Opus Dei is most responsible for the "Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportion" committed by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.
Opus Dei thought they would have a smooth ride at the Vatican with the 26+ years papacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI and all voting Cardinals until the world started throwing tomatoes and eggs on Benedict XVI’s face for his role in the cover-up of the John Paul II pedophile Priests Army. So it is the Jesuits who come to the rescue and take in all that eggs and tomatoes for their behalf while Opus Dei hide behind the Vatican chambers saying their Mass in sacred language Latin and masterminding the Vatican Bank.
Opus Dei controlled the 26+ years papacy of John Paul II. “No one goes to the Holy Father except through me” was the mantra of Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the one and only official (Opus Dei member) spokesperson of John Paul II. That is why the Opus Dei is the greatest complicit in the most heinous crimes of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.
Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel thrive
http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.htmlSee the Reasons why Opus Dei covered-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for decades: Words of Opus Dei Joaquin Navarro-Valls
http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.htmlOpus Dei female symbol for John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army
http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.htmlBenedict XVI appoints 24 Cardinals who will perpetuate Injustice in the Sacrament of Penance
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/John L. Allen Jr the Pied Piper of Benedict XVI toots “Will Ratzinger's past trump Benedict's present?” John Allen is the highest paid journalist on the planet paid especially by the trillion dollars Vatican Bank to deceive and mislead Catholics all over the world. .
http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-allen-of-ncr-pied-piper-of.htmlCompare the crimes and sins - Victims - criminals and sinners - Responsible Leaders
Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto
WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden
USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 pedophile priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity
Footnotes and references
Pathological liars are... http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_you_tell_if_someone_is_a_pathological_liar
Mythomania is http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mythomaniacs
Vatican asks victims to see church as ally in fighting abuse
VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter (United States)
by John L Allen Jr on Oct. 31, 2010 NCR Today
After roughly sixty victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in various nations held a vigil Sunday near St. Peter’s Square, a delegation of the victims met with Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson. Lombardi gave the victims a letter pledging to work towards “solidarity and consensus between us.”
“Of course, we must continue to do more. And your cry today is an encouragement to do more,” Lombardi wrote.
“But a large part of the church is already on the good path. The major part of the crimes belong to times bygone. Today’s reality and that of tomorrow are more beckoning. Let us help one another to journey together in the right direction.”
Respected expert to talk on Catholic church future
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, November 01, 2010
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
John Allen, a renowned reporter on Vatican affairs for both the National Catholic Reporter and CNN, will speak in the Pittsburgh region Wednesday, and again on Nov. 11.
He will speak Wednesday night in McCandless, and on Nov. 11 he will give a six-hour seminar at the Villa Maria Community Center in Villa Maria, Lawrence County. Both draw from his book, "The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church." ...
Americans' concerns are important, "but if we are going to be part of the global family, we need to think bigger about what the challenges facing us are," he said.
One example of a disconnect is a call from the advocates for victims of sexual abuse for Pope Benedict XVI to expand the reporting requirement in the United States to the entire world. Reporting sex crimes to the police is the right policy in the U.S., where the police are generally honest and the rights of Catholics are respected, Mr. Allen said. But it could be disastrous in nations where the police are complicit in persecution of the Catholic Church. An abuse report could bring violent attacks on the entire Catholic community.
"You can understand why Catholics in such places aren't eager to cooperate with the police. A mandate to do so would seem to them like a death sentence," Mr. Allen said.
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Another pathological lie from Benedict XVIThe religious trinkets of souvenirs being sold by the Vatican to tourists alone is a "profit-making machine". All those medals, rosaries, holy pictures, et cetera. Oh, and only those millionaires in England could have a photo-op with the pope. Photo with the pope is a multi-million dollar "profit-making machine".
'Not a profit-making machine'
ROME
Straits Times (Singapore)
ROME - THE Catholic Church is not a profit-making machine, Pope Benedict XVI said in extracts to be published on Friday of an upcoming book, as a money-laundering probe targeting the Vatican continues.
'We are not a centre of production, we are not an enterprise built for profit, we are a church,' the pope said in remarks extracted from a book of interviews and published in Italian news weekly Panorama.
'We are a community of people who live in the faith. The goal is not to create a product or to have success in sales,' the pontiff said.
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Victims of clerical sex abuse end protest with symbolic Vatican march
ROME
The Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
THE FIRST multinational protest by clerical sex abuse victims in the Vatican ended with a symbolic candlelit march last night.
Carrying large candles, two survivors, Gary Bergeron and Paula Leerschool, walked the entire length of the Via Della Conciliazione, into St Peter’s Square and right up to the bronze door entrance to the Apostolic Palace.
“Part of what survivors asked was that we deliver letters from them, from all around the world, to the pope and that was our attempt to do that,” said Mr Bergeron.
“They wouldn’t let us go up to the bronze door but . . . somebody in security asked us for our passports.
Clergy Abuse Victims Rally At Vatican
VATICAN CITY
NPR
by Sylvia Poggioli
November 1, 2010 In the first such gathering at the heart of the Catholic Church, victims of clerical sex abuse from across the world gathered Sunday night outside the Vatican to demand justice. But police blocked them from bringing their protest under the windows of Pope Benedict XVI.
Close to 100 sex abuse victims carrying torches were outnumbered by paramilitary police who cordoned off the main avenue leading to the Vatican. Only two protesters were allowed to approach Vatican soil and deposit sealed letters addressed to the pope from abuse victims.
At a rally staged just 500 yards from the Vatican, Gary Bergeron — co-founder of the group Survivors Voice — addressed the crowd.
Pope blasts Spain's "aggressive" anti-church waysBy NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain – Pope Benedict XVI criticized an "aggressive" anti-church sentiment that he said is flourishing in Spain as he arrived Saturday on a two-day visit to rekindle faith in a key Roman Catholic nation.
Benedict said the anti-clericalism being felt today in Spain harks back to the 1930's, when the church suffered a wave of violence and ill feeling as the country lurched from an unstable democracy to civil war.
Speaking Saturday to journalists en route to Santiago de Compostela, Benedict said he had created a new Vatican office to fight such secular trends worldwide. He said Spain was a particular focus since it had played such an important role in reviving Christianity in centuries past.
"In Spain, a strong, aggressive laicity, an anti-clericalism, a secularization has been born as we experienced in the 1930's," Benedict said. "For the future of the faith, it is this meeting — not a confrontation but a meeting — between faith and laicity, which has a central point in Spanish culture."
The pope is making two stops in Spain, first in the medieval and present-day pilgrimage city of Santiago, whose ornate cathedral is said to hold the remains of St. James the Apostle.
In his comments upon arrival in a fog-shrouded Santiago, the pope recalled that Pope John Paul II had issued a similar message to Spain and Europe to rediscover their Christian roots when he visited Santiago in 1982.
"A Spain and Europe concerned not only with people's material needs but also with their moral and social, spiritual and religious needs, since all these are genuine requirements of our common humanity," he said in Spanish.
The Pontiff wraps his trip up on the other side of the country in Barcelona, where he will dedicate the famous albeit unfinished Sagrada Familia church.
There, he'll also face a "kiss-in" staged by gays and lesbians expected to number in the thousands, evidence of the secular lifestyle that Benedict has identified as a threat to the faith.
With such palpable opposition to the pope, it's no surprise that Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will only see Benedict as he's leaving on Sunday night. Laws under Zapatero's watch have allowed gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier abortions, deeply angering the Vatican.
In Zapatero's place, Spain's royal family is taking care of the protocol during the pope's visit. Crown Prince Filipe greeted Benedict at Santiago's airport Saturday and welcomed him to the country.
T
he Pope in Barcelona: Kissing Gays and a Controversial Church
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2029661,00.html#ixzz14Wccx3V7
Others, however, don't see the papal benediction quite so benignly. The Atheists of Catalonia organization has revived its recent advertising campaign for the occasion — "Probably, God doesn't exist," say posters pasted on the sides of public buses; "Stop worrying and enjoy life" — and plans to hold a protest outside the new basilica on Sunday, as do several feminist groups. To get there, they'll have to fight their way through the gay and lesbian couples locking lips for a two-minute "kiss-in." One consortium, the Secular and Progressive Movement, has already gotten the protests underway with a 3,000-strong demonstration held Thursday in Sant Jaume square, the seat of Catalan government. "Spain and Catalonia are pluralist," says Joffre Villanueva, secretary general of the association. "No single religious or moral code should be allowed to dominate the public space."
It's for that reason that one political party within the Catalan government, Catalan Green Initiative (ICV), has mounted its own protest. With expenses for the papal visit expected to reach €700,000 ($990,000), and Spain still deep in recession, ICV leader Joan Herrera called on the Catalan government to pay only the security costs of the pope's visit — just as it would for any foreign head of state — and not the expenses associated with the Mass, including the construction of a press center. "We're losing the perspective of an aconfessional state," he said in a radio interview earlier this week. The members of his party who form part of the regional cabinet have refused to attend the service. (See more on the reaction leading up to the Pope's U.K. visit.)
A STATEMENT,on the Facebook page called "queer kissing flashmob," that calls Spanish gays and lesbians to welcome Pope Benedict XVI to their country this weekend with a massive homosexual kiss-in
Yet other local politicians, even the left-leaning ones, have found reason to celebrate the Pope's visit. Barcelona mayor Jordi Hereu, of the Catalan Socialist Party, counters that the benefits to the city will far outweigh the costs. "The economic value of the trip has been estimated at €30 million ($40 million), four million of which will go to promoting Barcelona's international image," he says. "Compare that with the amount the city is spending, and the numbers speak for themselves. The balance is totally positive."
And this being the famously nationalist Catalonia, there's another reason Mayor Hereu and other politicians are pleased: the Pope will conduct part of the service in Catalan. Last week the mayor issued an order urging Barcelonans to hang the Catalan — not the Spanish — flag from their balconies in honor of the papal visit. "In recognition," Hereu tells TIME, "of our status as the Catalan capital." Even the archbishop of Barcelona has welcomed the visit as evidence of a "sweet moment between the Vatican and the Catalan church," a statement that has thrust him into his own mini-debate with Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco. "There is no Catalan church," replied Isidoro Catela, spokesman for the Madrid-based Spanish Bishop's Conference, of which Rouco is the head. "There is only the universal Catholic church."
A commemorative stamp celebrating the anticipated visit by Pope Benedict XVI, is displayed at the Sagrada Familia museum in Barcelona, Spain
Manu Fernandez / AP
