John L. Allen Jr.

Joan Chittister

Thomas Gumbleton

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Papal trip briefs

By John L. Allen Jr.
Valencia, Spain

Here are some bits of color from around the edges of Benedict XVI's weekend visit to Valencia for the close of the Fifth World Meeting of Families, an event created by John Paul II and previously celebrated in Rome (twice), Rio de Janeiro, and Manila.

For NCR's main story on the visit, see Benedict's message gentle but unambiguous.

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During Sunday's Mass, Benedict XVI employed the "Holy Chalice of Valencia," regarded by devotees as the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. Believers see it as a relic at last equal in importance to the famed Shroud of Turin, regarded as the burial cloth of Christ.

The storied chalice is known in local tradition as the "Holy Grail," and is regarded as the inspiration for the medieval cycle of Grail legends and romances. Tradition holds that it was sent to Spain in the third century by St. Laurence, to protect it during persecutions under the Roman Emperor Valerian.

The chalice, preserved in a chapel at Valencia's cathedral, consists of two distinct parts: an agate cup roughly the size of a half-orange, and a base encrusted with jewels, regarded as a later medieval addition. The base has an inscription in Arabic, suggesting to some that it was produced by a workshop during the period of Moorish domination of Spain.

John Paul II celebrated Mass with the chalice during his visit to Valencia in November 1982, and Benedict today followed his example.

The Vatican had not confirmed until this morning that the pope would do so, in part because Benedict appeared to slightly downplay the significance of the relic on Saturday during his visit to the cathedral. The pope said that he had "prayed before" the Blessed Sacrament and "halted before" the "celebrated relic of the Holy Chalice."

Before he left Valencia, Benedict was presented with a copy of the Holy Chalice to take with him to Rome.

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The World Meeting of Families is organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family, led by Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who has been ubiquitous at the side of Benedict XVI here.

Lopez Trujillo is widely recognized as the strongest "hawk" on cultural issues in the Vatican, and even by his rather pugnacious standards, he's has had quite a run in recent weeks.

When Colombia's high court legalized abortion on May 11 under restricted circumstances -- when the life of a mother is in danger, when the fetus is expected to die, or in cases of rape or incest -- Lopez Trujillo was quick to condemn the decision as a "judicial stupidity."

"The Constitutional Court does not have the right to say there is or there is not a crime," he said. "This is a bad decision, the fruit of international pressures that disrespect many Colombians."

Next, in early June, Lopez Trujillo's office issued a strongly-worded 57-page attack on modern social trends, including the acceptance of gay marriage and contraception.

"Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today's culture," the document said.

Then, in an interview with the Italian weekly Famiglia Cristiana, Lopez Trujillo warned that the Vatican's defense of traditional visions of the family could soon be considered a crime under international law.

"The church is at risk of being brought before some international court, if the debate becomes any tenser, if the more radical requests get heard," he said.

In the same interview, Lopez Trujillo asserted that the automatic excommunication in church law for abortion extends also to embryonic stem cell research.

"Destroying an embryo is equivalent to abortion," he said. "Excommunication is valid for the women, the doctors and researchers who destroy embryos."

Finally, in an early July interview with an Italian paper, Lopez Trujillo said that some governments today are "drunk with secularization" and must rethink their social policies.

There's little question that Benedict and Lopez Trujillo are generally in lockstep on matters of substance. When it comes to tone, however, they have something of a "good cop, bad cop" combination. While Benedict was on the ground in Valencia, it was generally the "good cop" who had the upper hand.

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In the days leading up to Benedict's arrival, the World Meeting of Families sponsored a "Theological-Pastoral Congress" on family issues.

During this session, Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, laid out the social teaching of the church with respect to the family.

The family "does not receive its legitimization from the State, nor can it be considered a simple component of the social system," Martino said. In fact, the family "precedes and is the foundation for both civil society and the State."

"The family is the first form of natural society, and holds its own rights," Martino said. It is "the primary location of interpersonal relations, and the context in which the individual is formed."

The official theme of the World Meeting of Families was "the transmission of the faith in the family."

Bishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, president of the Spanish bishops' conference, citing several works of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, argued that it is not enough simply to expose youth to prayer and the gospel, which he described as a "Protestant vision" of faith formation.

It's also necessary, Blázquez said, to foster in young people a sense of being shaped by the church.

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One clear theme from discussions at the congress was the contribution made by grandparents to families, as well as the church's pastoral care of the elderly.

The congress featured three "tracks," one for theologians, one for young people, and one for grandparents. Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, told NCR that he was most impressed with the final message of the grandparents' assembly, which, he said, was a "simple, but quite beautiful" statement.

The statement called for optimism with regard to the family and the contemporary social situation, asserting that "the love of God is stronger than our sins."

Several speakers, Pell said, stressed the crucial role played by grandparents and other elderly relatives in a world in which both parents often work outside the home. Elderly members of the family frequently become primary care-givers and "handers-on of the faith," Pell noted.

Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, addressed the importance of the "apostolate to the elderly" in his remarks at the congress, observing that many elderly persons today feel isolated, and that offering them pastoral care is an important task for the church.

In his remarks Saturday night, Pope Benedict included a special appeal for grandparents, urging that "in no way should they ever be excluded from the family circle."

Before the pope spoke, a series of families from different parts of the world offered brief "testimonies." Italian actor Lino Banfi, best known for his role as a grandfather in the popular series Un Medico in Famiglia, told Benedict that some people call him "Italy's grandfather."

Banfi said that he responds, "If I'm the grandfather of Italy, then our pope is the grandfather of the world!"

During Sunday's Mass, Benedict again returned to the theme, insisting that families must be understood as including "not only parents and children, but also grandparents and ancestors."

"The family thus appears to us as a community of generations and the guarantee of a patrimony of traditions," the pope said.

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Benedict delivered his seven addresses in Valencia in Spanish, and drew generally rave reviews for his mastery of the language. One native Spanish speaker told NCR that in his experience, Germans generally do not master Spanish with ease, tending to do better with the grammar than with pronunciation and the rhythm of speech.

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By way of contrast, this Spaniard said, Benedict's inflection was generally flawless. The immediate responses of the crowds suggested that average Spaniards understood Benedict with ease.

As one linguistic footnote, Benedict occasionally spoke a few words in what he called "the Valencian language." In fact, most linguists regard "Valencian" as a regional variant of Catalan, the language spoken in broad portions of northern and eastern Spain. According to regional authorities, Catalan is the eighth most spoken language in Europe, even though it its not recognized as an official language in the European Union. Catalan is also the official language of the tiny European state of Andorra.

Despite this linguistic heritage, Valencia has never been associated with Catalan nationalism like Barcellona, which may explain why Valencians insist upon calling the language "Valencian."

In any event, whenever Benedict broke out in the local dialect, he drew especially strong applause.

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Though the crowds in Valencia were large and enthusiastic, the welcome for Benedict XVI was not entirely universal.

A small group of counter-demonstrators in the city, many associated with pro-gay groups, were wearing stickers with the papal miter surrounded by the Spanish symbol for something that's prohibited.

In a play on banners that lined the streets in the days leading up to Benedict's arrival that said, "We're waiting for you," many of these demonstrators were also sporting small signs or stickers that said in the local dialect Jo no te espere, meaning, "I'm not waiting for you."

In perhaps the day's most curious protest, a small group of nude bicyclists tooled through the city in favor of "alternative lifestyles."

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Security for the papal trip, as is customary for terrorism-conscious Spain, was ubiquitous. Some 12,000 police were mobilized for the two days in Valencia, along with a NATO AWACS aircraft to monitor the airspace around Valencia.

When the Alitalia plane carrying Benedict XVI entered Spanish airspace, two "Top Gun"-style fighter aircraft took positions on either side of the plane until it touched down in Valencia. Upon arrival, jeeps carrying heavily armed troops wearing ski masks kept pace with the plane until it came to a halt at the reception area.

Given the country's bloody experience with the ETA movement inspired by Basque nationalism, as well as the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004, organizers said, such precautions are understandable.

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Though Valencia was briefly the capital of Republican Spain during the 1936-39 Civil War, and witnessed some of the most ferocious anti-clerical persecutions of that period, it also has deep historical ties with Rome and with the Catholic church.

Two popes, for example, have roots in Valencia: Alfonso Borgia, served as Pope Callixtus III from 1455 to 1458, and his nephew Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI from 1492-1503.

Both are associated with the Italian renaissance, and, of less happy memory, with the moral decadence of the papacy in that era. Alexander, for example, had four illegitimate children with his mistress, and reputedly engaged in acts of bacchanalian debauchery in the Vatican.

On the other hand, another member of the family, St. Francis Borgia, joined the Jesuits, became a counselor to St. Ignatius Loyola and an important factor in the Counter-Reformation, and was canonized in 1670.

Over the course of the centuries, there have been 41 cardinals from Valencia, many of them created by the Borgia popes.

Two of John Paul II's record-making acts as pope are associated with Valencia.

During his November 1982 visit to Valencia, the late pope ordained 141 new priests, the largest single crop of his nearly 27-year papacy. On March 11, 2003, John Paul also beatified 233 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War from Valencia, marking the largest set of new beati of his pontificate.

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There was an American sidebar to the theological-pastoral congress in Valencia.

Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and a consultor for the Pontifical Council for the Family, delivered an address on "The Family Beyond Ideologies."

Anderson also serves as vice president of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family in the United States, whose headquarters is at the Lateran University in Rome, and whose American branch is located at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Since 1994, the Spanish branch of the institute has been located in Valencia.

In one illustration of the cultural difference between Europe and the United States, Anderson's presentation was introduced by Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston and currently the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

Given Law's association with the American sexual abuse crisis, it would be difficult to imagine him speaking at a conference on the family in the United States without arousing comment.

Here, however, Law passed largely unnoticed.

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Observers of the church/state relationship said this weekend that private negotiations between Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo, and the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, seem to be making progress, and some expect an agreement by the end of the year on two especially thorny issues: the question of teaching religion in public schools, and of public funding for church activities.

The Socialist government has proposed making religion, which is currently an obligatory subject in Spanish schools, optional. Government officials have also suggested that the church should gradually wean itself from reliance on public funding. Last year, the church received about 3.5 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of state money to support its educational, social, and cultural endeavors.

After the transition to democracy in Spain in 1975, a new constitution was adopted that declared the state religiously neutral. A set of side agreements signed in 1979, however, preserved some of the traditional economic and cultural privileges of the Catholic church, seen as a necessary move to avoid reopening strong historical divisions in Spanish society.

Some members of the Zapatero government believe the time has come to complete the transition to a fully secular, pluralist society. Many Spanish Catholics, on the other hand, see suggestions of reductions in funding as an ideologically-driven assault on the charitable and educational work of the church.

Sources told NCR that the talks between Cañizares and Fernández may result in some restructuring of funding, but the net total will remain "generous."

On the issue of religion courses, sources said the two sides appear to be groping towards a pragmatic compromise. Under its terms, religion would become an optional offering rather than a requirement, but the alternative would be sufficiently unappealing as to encourage most students to continue to take the religion class.

Both sides see incentives for reaching a meeting of the minds.

Though Zapatero's challenge to the church does not seem to have cost him in the polls, where he still enjoys an advantage over the opposition Partido Popolar, it has irritated centrist elements within his own party. Church authorities, meanwhile, fear an escalation that could further erode the special status Catholicism still enjoys in the country.

Further, some bishops from autonomous regions such as Catalonia or the Basque territories do not want the church to be too tightly identified with the Partido Popolar, the main defender of a strong central government.

[John Allen is NCR Senior Correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.]

July 9, 2006, National Catholic Reporter