Local Article

"El secretario de Estado del Vaticano, turista de excepción en Barcelona"

This article is from La Vanguardia. Today the morning of April 24th, the secretary of state of the Vatican, Tarcisio Bertone visited the Sagrada Familia. He was supposed to come on Monday but all the volcano disruptions prevented him from arriving in Barcelona then. He arrived at 12:30pm to the church and was accompanied by the president delegate of the temple, Joan Rigol, and the director of architecture, Jordi Bonet. Workers of the Sagrada Familia were checking bags and backpacks of people entering the temple and anyone surrounding the temple to guarantee the safety of the number two man to the Pope. There were also many police officials and Mossos d'Esquadra to again ensure the man's safety. The visit of Bertone is supposed to be the prelude to the visit of Pope Benedicto XVI to Barcelona where he is supposed to consecrate the Sagrada Familia by holding a holy mass inside. I picked this article in particular because I live right up the block from the Sagrada Familia on Marina. I noticed today that there was a lot more traffic and a lot more tourists outside the Sagrada Familia and this may explain why. It also may be that it is a Saturday and I have not been in Barcelona many weekends to notice just how many tourists are outside the Sagrada Familia on a Saturday. I can't believe that I am only finding out now that a very famous man was just up the block from me today inside the church. I was not aware that the Pope was planning a visit to the Church soon to hold mass there, and I didn't know that the church actually functions and holds holy services when it is under construction. If anything, I would have thought people would wait until the construction was finished to consecrate the church with a mass service. I am not very religious, and I am also Jewish so I am not sure what a mass will do to make this church more holy, however I do realize that if the Pope travels here and does so it will be a big deal. I wish that the Sagrada Familia church would not be under construction. When I came to Barcelona in 2007 it was under construction and it still is today. I feel like all of the major cities I have traveled to have had their main attraction under construction and I wish it would all come to an end. The picture I am including is of the Sagrada Familia because clearly I do not have any pictures of Tarcisio Bertone inside the Sagrada Familia.