Tens of thousands
of people in predominantly Roman Catholic Spain rallied
Sunday in Madrid to defend the traditional family in a
country where the government has legalized same-sex
marriage and facilitated divorce. The crowd roared
when Pope Benedict XVI appeared on giant TV screens in a
live hookup from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City,
praising the crowd. The pope, speaking during the
traditional noon Sunday Angelus prayer, said the
family is ''based on the unbreakable union of man and woman
and represents the privileged environment where human
life is welcomed and protected from the beginning to
its natural end.''
Tens of thousands
of people in predominantly Roman Catholic Spain rallied
Sunday in Madrid to defend the traditional family in a
country where the government has legalized same-sex
marriage and facilitated divorce.
The crowd roared
when Pope Benedict XVI appeared on giant TV screens in a
live hookup from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City,
praising the crowd.
The pope,
speaking during the traditional noon Sunday Angelus prayer,
said the family is ''based on the unbreakable union of man
and woman and represents the privileged environment
where human life is welcomed and protected from the
beginning to its natural end.''
''It is
worthwhile to work for the family and marriage because it is
worthwhile to work for the human being, the most precious
being created by God,'' the pope said, speaking in
Spanish. He urged parents to bring up their children
with respect for the moral values that give dignity to
human life.
It was Benedict's
latest appeal for the traditional family, a central
theme of his papacy. The Vatican has campaigned against
proposals to legalize same-sex marriage and denounced
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's
government for passing a law recognizing such unions.
The rally filled
a central intersection, Plaza de Colon, and spilled over
into neighboring streets. No crowd estimates were available.
The president of
the Spanish Bishops Conference, Ricardo Blazquez, said
the term ''traditional family'' often is interpreted as an
anachronism.
But, he said, the
traditional family ''is rooted in human nature
itself.''
''Its validity is
a thing of yesterday, today, and tomorrow,'' he said.
(Daniel Woolls, AP)
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