Dorota Abdelmoula-Viet – Vatican
“Europe, find yourself!”
The first Pope to visit Spain was John Paul II. The apostolic visit, which the Holy Father made at the turn of October and November 1982, was extremely intense, covering 16 cities and summarized in 40 papal speeches and homilies. Due to the political changes taking place at that time among the nations of the Old Continent, including Spain itself, where democracy was being reborn after the death of General Franco, this visit became a strong message for all of Europe – Vatican News reminds us.
The Pope – visiting places associated with great saints of the Catholic Church, including Avila on the 400th anniversary of the death of St. Teresa and the hometown of St. Ignatius – journeyed in the footsteps of great Spanish saints and recalled Spain’s role in the history of the Church. He also spoke firmly about Europe’s Christian identity, and one of the most powerful speeches of his entire pontificate on this topic resonated in Santiago de Compostela and is known today as the “European Act”. The Holy Father then recalled, quoting Goethe, that it was on the pilgrimage route leading to the tomb of St. James that European consciousness was born. And he cried out: “Europe, (…) Find yourself! Be yourself! Discover your origins. Breathe life into your roots. Breathe life into these authentic values (…) Other continents look to you and expect from you the same answer that Saint James gave to Christ: ‘I can’”
The still relevant need for mission
The next papal visit to Spain took place in 1984, and the several-hour stay on the Iberian Peninsula was a stop on a journey in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, on the 500th anniversary of his second voyage and the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the evangelization of America. John Paul II visited Zaragoza, from where the explorer set off across the ocean.
In the Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, where the Mother of God is venerated as the patroness of all Spanish-speaking Catholics (and Spanish is spoken by the most Catholics in the world today), addressing missionaries and their families, the Holy Father recalled that it is in this place that “in the enduring and ancient tradition of the sanctuary of El Pilar, the apostolic dimension of the Church shines forth in all its splendor”. He thanked the Spanish people for their uninterrupted missionary service over the centuries and emphasized the importance of Marian devotion in a country where “to say Spain is to say Mary”.
Youth, the future of Europe and the world
The occasion for the third journey to Spain was the IV World Youth Day, which took place in Santiago de Compostela in August 1989. Its motto was the words from the Gospel according to St. John: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. It is significant that for the first meeting of youth from all over the world outside Rome (and Buenos Aires in 1987), the Polish Pope chose one of Europe’s oldest pilgrimage routes, wanting to remind young people in uncertain times to follow Christ in life. And to the world – and especially to Europe, increasingly rejecting totalitarian enslavement – he showed that the future lies precisely with these young people, bravely seeking their Christian identity.
“Patron of pilgrims, lead this pilgrimage of young Christians. And as peoples once journeyed to you, today you go out with us to meet all peoples. With you, Saint James, apostle and pilgrim, we want to proclaim to the nations of Europe and the world that Christ is – today and always – the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” cried the Holy Father in Santiago.
The world needs the Eucharist
Each papal visit, though multi-faceted and full of meaning in every, even the smallest, point of the program, had its “leitmotif”. In the case of John Paul II’s 4th journey to Spain in June 1993, it was the conclusion of the 45th International Eucharistic Congress and the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of America. For these two reasons, he primarily visited Seville (the congress venue), Huelva, associated with Christopher Columbus, and Madrid, where he ordained 37 deacons to the priesthood.
The Pope recalled the importance of the Eucharist in Christian life and the responsibility of Catholics in social life, then marked by processes of European integration, but also secularization. It was also significant that Spain became the first destination of his pilgrimage to Western European countries after the pivotal year 1989 – apart from visits to Malta and Portugal, to which he went on the anniversary of the assassination attempt.
Testament of saints and roots
During his last, two-day visit to Spain in May 2003, whose motto was the words from the Acts of the Apostles “You will be my witnesses”, John Paul II, already seriously ill, went only to Madrid. There, at Cuatro Vientos airport, he met with a crowd of 700,000 young people, and a day later, in the presence of a million faithful, he canonized five Spaniards.
“Do not renounce your Christian roots! Only in this way will you be able to offer the world and Europe the cultural richness of your history,” the Pope appealed then. His words became a kind of testament he left to the local Church, called once again to creatively engage in the fate of a world that had entered the challenging 3rd millennium.
Strengthening for families
When Spanish society was polarized by reforms not always consistent with the Church’s teaching, bishops sought to strengthen the faithful, among other ways, by organizing the V World Meeting of Families, which took place in Valencia in July 2006. Participation in it became an occasion for Benedict XVI’s first visit to Spain, where the Pope came with a strong message of strengthening for families (it was also his first apostolic journey, apart from WYD in Cologne and a visit to Poland).
“The family, based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, is the environment in which a person can be born with dignity and develop integrally,” the Pope said during a meeting with a two-million-strong crowd of faithful, and his words were a clear reference to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spanish law in July 2005.
Compostela and Sagrada Familia – a dialogue of faith and culture
The occasion for Benedict XVI’s second visit to Spain was the Jacobean Holy Year, celebrated in years when July 25 falls on a Sunday. This was the case in 2010, and the papal visit, during which he visited Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona, where he consecrated Gaudí’s monumental work – the Sagrada Familia basilica – became an opportunity to once again call for Europe to rediscover its Christian identity – also by drawing on its cultural and artistic traditions.
“Europe must open itself to God, meet Him without fear, cooperate with His grace for that human dignity which the best traditions have discovered: alongside the biblical tradition, which is of fundamental importance in this regard, also the traditions of classical, medieval and modern times, from which the great philosophical and literary, cultural and social works of Europe were born,” the Pope said.
Persevere, despite the storms
The occasion for the last papal pilgrimage to Spain was the 26th World Youth Day, hosted by Madrid in August 2011. Its motto was the words “Rooted and built up in Christ, firm in the faith”, and the Pope’s encouragement to young people not to fear obstacles in professing their faith unexpectedly took on an extremely practical meaning. On the one hand, due to anti-Church protests that swept through the streets of Madrid in the presence of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. On the other hand, during an unexpected storm that swept over Cuatro Vientos airport during the evening vigil with the Holy Father.
Benedict XVI then remained with the young people and prayed with them until the very end, in the pouring rain. “Together we experienced an adventure,” he told them at the end of the vigil. “Just like tonight, with Christ you will always be able to face life’s trials. Do not forget this.”
