SPAIN: Pope Blesses Anti-Gay Rally

Yesterday Pope Benedict spoke via satellite from the Vatican to bless the hundreds of thousands gathered at a massive annual anti-gay marriage rally in Madrid. The rally was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Madrid with the support of the Popular Party, Spain's right-wing movement which has vowed to overturn same-sex marriage.

Organized by the Archdiocese of Madrid and Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela under the motto ‘The Christian Family: the hope of Europe,’ the event began at 10 AM in the Plaza de Colon. The cardinal, in the company of fifty bishops from Spain, France, The Netherlands, and as far away as Poland, celebrated Mass on an elevated dais that was surmounted by a white cross some sixty feet tall. Also present were the thousands of lay people, including small children, representing not only Spain, but also various other countries and represented by their national flags. Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of San Sebastian called on participants to offer “testimony that encourage us, because what is being offered in the media is an untruthful model of unstructured family. We want a real family model that encourages us, testimony from exemplary families. Secondly, prayer that is offered communally has a very special power and the more people united in communion the more power there will be to foster a stable family.”

The below clip is from the Vatican's official YouTube channel.