The Pope Spoke to Me

Pope Benedict XVI was in Valencia, Spain this weekend. I caught a special newscast of him this morning, where he spoke his final words before leaving the country. His 26-hour visit here was his first visit to Spain since he assumed the papacy a little over a year ago.

It's been many years since I've even seen a news program with a pope speaking to the masses, but today, he gave his speech in Spanish. For the first time in my life, he was speaking in a language I UNDERSTOOD! Unfortunately, he didn't really say much, but I found it interesting to finally hear the words of a pontiff directly rather than hearing English dubbed over their native language.

During his visit, he repeatedly mentioned the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, with the allusion that gay marriage is NOT sacred and has no place in Catholic society. It comes as no surprise that he made of point of denouncing gay marriage, as it's been legal in Spain for just over a year now, and the Vatican has been staunchly opposed to gay marriage since the debate heated up several years ago.

What has sort of confounded me is why the gays would even care to have their marriages recognized by the church. I mean, I haven't really thought much about gay marriage, I guess you could say that I "ain't the marryin' type" or something like that, but my main thought on the whole debate has been that gays should just push for civil unions so that they have the same legal rights as straight couples. What occurred to me for the first time today is that if you're a devout Roman Catholic in a committed gay relationship, it's of utmost importance that your union be recognized by the church so that your not living in sin. I can't believe that had never occurred to me before. Unfortunately, if you're a devout Roman Catholic in this situation, I think it may be best to consider switching faiths rather than wait for the Vatican to switch their stance on this. Especially with the new pope, who is known to be very conservative, you might be waiting a while.

I found this Yahoo news article about the pope's visit that talks about the Vatican's frustration with Spain's current government, led by José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. They have legalized gay marriage, made it easier to get a divorce, and halted a plan by a previous government to make religion classes mandatory in public schools. What I found most suprising was the quote below about the rapid shift away from the church in Spain.

Many Spaniards have drifted away from the church in the three decades since the fall of the Gen. Francisco Franco dictatorship, under which it enjoyed special privileges.

Spain has passed from being a bedrock of Roman Catholicism to a predominantly lay society in less than a generation. Statistics show that while 80 percent of Spaniards still call themselves Catholics, only 42 percent believe in God and 20 percent go to Mass.

I'll talk about this more in depth in forthcoming blog entries, but one of my first observations about Spanish society upon my arrival was how quickly things are changing and how much they have already changed since the authoritarian dictatorship of Franco. I am continually shocked at how a population can go through such a dramatic shift and still be so seemingly well adjusted.