Papal visit seen as bringing new hope to secularized Spain

August 09, 2011

As young people begin to arrive in Madrid for World Youth Day (WYD), the apostolic nuncio in Spain predicts that the event, and the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, will “bring a new wind” into a society that has been sapped by secularism.

Archbishop Renzo Fratini told Vatican Radio that “many young people feel disillusioned” in today’s Spain, and many are looking for hope. The Pope’s visit, he said, could help “encourage a spiritual rebirth of the nation.”

The apostolic nuncio saw special importance in the fact that Pope Benedict has arrived his schedule to allow time to hear confessions. That choice, he said, underlines the fact that “the Christian life really starts from an inner renewal, from a conversion: the return to God.” The essential message of WYD, Archbishop Fratini said, is similar: a call to “rediscover the foundations of the fundamental choice of Christian life.”

 

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Further information:

• WYD and Pope Benedict’s vision of a “new evangelisation” (Vatican Radio)
• WYD 2011: 'Important energy in the Church' (Vatican Radio)