Pope Benedict XVI
closed the religious ceremonies of World Youth Day on Sunday with a
giant Mass in which he told young people to “swim against the tide” and
abide by the principles of the Catholic Church despite broader changes
in society.
The culmination of World Youth Day — a six-day event that drew more than
one million pilgrims to Madrid — took place at an air base on the
outskirts of the city.
Though the event was marred earlier this week by clashes between the
police and protesters condemning its cost, the huge and ebullient
welcome for the pope provided a powerful demonstration of his influence,
even at a time when church attendance has been dwindling in Catholic
countries like Spain.
At the end of Sunday’s Mass, the pope announced that the next such event
would be in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Until then, he told those at the
service, in Portuguese, that they “will be swimming against the tide in a
society with a relativistic culture, which wishes neither to seek nor
hold on to the truth.”
Young pilgrims had started to gather Saturday morning at the air base
ahead of an evening vigil, in order to get closer to the altar, which
was 220 yards long, draped in white and crowned by a giant, treelike
parasol, made of interwoven golden rods and designed to protect the pope
from the brutal heat.
Although organizers set aside an area the size of
48 soccer fields to allow pilgrims to spend the night, thousands had
to be turned away because of lack of space.
With the temperature at
around 100 degrees, and despite eight fire trucks patrolling the area to
hose down the crowd, almost 900 people required medical attention on
Saturday because of heat-related problems.
Still, the weather broke abruptly just after the pope arrived for the
Saturday service, forcing an interruption in the vigil and the
cancellation of the communion while the pope took shelter from the wind
and rain under a white umbrella.
When the storm passed, the pope resumed
his homily by thanking his audience for their “joy and resistance.” and
for being “stronger than the rain.”
While about 70 percent of Spain’s residents consider themselves to be
Catholics, the country has witnessed a sharp fall in church attendance,
with the number of civil weddings overtaking religious ones in 2009.
Still, the economic downturn has shown the importance of religious
charities, at a time when the government has imposed severe austerity
cuts to help resolve its debt problems.
About 800,000 people in Spain
fell into poverty from 2007 and 2010, according to a report published
last month by Cáritas, a Catholic charity.
Beside being an opportunity for the Catholic Church to strengthen its
support, the event should be seen as a call for “greater social
engagement,” said Cristóbal Fones, a priest and musician visiting from
Chile.
Still, most of the teenagers, dressed in the event’s official yellow
T-shirt and waving their national flags, said the highlight had been
seeing the pope.
“I can’t think of a happier day in my life,” said
Roberto Avalos, a 17-year-old who was among a large contingent from
Ecuador.
Beginning on Tuesday, Mr. Avalos and friends plan to spend several days
in Italy before returning home. “I’ve got as far as Europe so it also
makes sense to make the most of it and discover more than just Madrid,”
he said.
Ahead of the visit, the Spanish foreign ministry eased immigration
requirements and scrapped visa fees for pilgrims from Ecuador and
several other countries who would normally struggle to enter.
Earlier in the week, the downtown square of Puerta del Sol was the scene
of small but violent clashes between the police and protesters who
objected to the cost of the visit, as well as the blurring of lines
between a Catholic celebration and the secularism that is enshrined in
the Spanish constitution.
On Friday, the Spanish interior ministry
ordered an investigation into whether the police had used excessive
force against the protestors.
In November, during his last visit to Spain, the pope ruffled feathers
by warning against the "strong and aggressive secularism" that was
developing in Spain.
The Catholic Church has led opposition to several
reforms adopted under the Spanish government of Prime Minister José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero, including the legalization of same-sex marriages.
This time, the pope, who spend four days in Madrid, avoided any comment
that could heighten political tensions ahead of a general election in
November.
Instead, the Spanish government used the event to seek the Vatican’s
backing for its plans to convert the Valley of the Fallen, the large
underground basilica built by Francisco Franco to honor those who died
for the Fascist victory in Spain’s civil war, into “a place of
reconciled memory.”
The government also called on the church to increase
its influence in the Basque Country to help break up ETA, the
separatist group that has killed more than 800 since the late 1960s.
Organizers have insisted that the event’s budget of 50 million euros
(about $72 million) had been covered by registration fees and corporate
sponsors.
The government and the regional authorities of Madrid also
forecast that the event would yield financial benefits for a Spanish
economy that has been severely hit by the global financial crisis.
The arrival of myriad pilgrims, at a time when Madrid is normally
deserted by its beach-seeking inhabitants, certainly transformed Spain’s
capital.
While the closing of main avenues disrupted traffic, many
local business owners welcomed the visitors. Manuel Rojas, owner of a
restaurant that advertised special menus, estimated that revenue was
about 15 percent higher than during a normal August.
“It doesn’t ensure
economic salvation, but it’s certainly business that we wouldn’t
normally be getting,” he said.
Brazil added another major international event to its busy calendar on
Sunday when the pope announced that Rio would host the next World Youth
Day.
Rio will also welcome the 2016 Olympics, while the World Cup is set to be held in soccer-mad Brazil in 2014.
The pope was scheduled to leave from Madrid’s Barajas airport at 6.30
p.m., after a final meeting with pilgrims at a nearby exhibition center.