{"id":2406,"date":"2010-11-08T15:29:05","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma.php"},"modified":"2010-11-08T15:29:05","modified_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:29:05","slug":"pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","title":{"rendered":"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Francis X. Rocca<br \/>\nc. 2010 Religion News Service<br \/>\nVATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced abortion, same-sex marriage and the absence of religion in public life during a weekend (Nov. 6-7) visit to Spain, a country he called the &#8220;focal point&#8221; of tensions between faith and secularism in Europe.<br \/>\n&#8220;The generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end,&#8221; Benedict said on Sunday (Nov. 7), in a sermon at the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Basilica in Barcelona.<br \/>\nOn his way to consecrate the 128-year-old (and still unfinished) church &#8212; the iconic masterpiece of modernist architect Antoni Gaudi &#8212; Benedict passed an estimated 200 demonstrators staging a same-sex &#8220;kiss-in&#8221; to protest Catholic Church teaching on homosexuality.<br \/>\nChurch leaders have clashed with the Socialist government of Spain&#8217;s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero over its legalization of same-sex marriage and support for liberal laws on abortion and divorce.<br \/>\nLater on Sunday, Benedict visited a home for disabled children and youth in Barcelona run by Franciscan nuns.<br \/>\n&#8220;It is indispensable that new technological developments in the field of medicine never be to the detriment of respect for human life and dignity,&#8221; the pope said, in an apparent reference to abortions chosen on pre-natal diagnostic data.<br \/>\nOn Saturday (Nov. 6), Benedict celebrated Mass outside the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain&#8217;s national shrine, in the northwestern region of Galicia. The historic shrine draws millions of pilgrims every year, a tradition that Benedict said had helped to foster Europe&#8217;s &#8220;spiritual unity.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;By making pilgrimages here, people have discovered themselves, they have discovered a shared European identity,&#8221; the pope told reporters accompanying him on the flight from Rome on Saturday.<br \/>\nReviving Christianity in increasingly secular Europe has been a major theme of Benedict&#8217;s papacy, and is a priority for the Vatican&#8217;s newly established Council for New Evangelization.<br \/>\nIn his sermon at Santiago, Benedict deplored the absence of God in Europe&#8217;s public discourse.<br \/>\n&#8220;How can it be that there is public silence with regard to the first and essential reality of human life?&#8221; the pope asked. &#8220;How can what is most decisive in life be confined to the purely private sphere or banished to the shadows?&#8221;<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Francis X. Rocca c. 2010 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced abortion, same-sex marriage and the absence of religion in public life during a weekend (Nov. 6-7) visit to Spain, a country he called the &#8220;focal point&#8221; of tensions between faith and secularism in Europe. &#8220;The generous and indissoluble love&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Francis X. Rocca c. 2010 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced abortion, same-sex marriage and the absence of religion in public life during a weekend (Nov. 6-7) visit to Spain, a country he called the &#8220;focal point&#8221; of tensions between faith and secularism in Europe. &#8220;The generous and indissoluble love&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-08T15:29:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aroan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion","og_description":"By Francis X. Rocca c. 2010 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced abortion, same-sex marriage and the absence of religion in public life during a weekend (Nov. 6-7) visit to Spain, a country he called the &#8220;focal point&#8221; of tensions between faith and secularism in Europe. &#8220;The generous and indissoluble love&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2010-11-08T15:29:05+00:00","author":"aroan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma","name":"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-08T15:29:05+00:00","dateModified":"2010-11-08T15:29:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/11\/pope-in-spain-denounces-gay-ma#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope, in Spain, Denounces Gay Marriage, Abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc","name":"aroan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","caption":"aroan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/aroan"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}