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The young people will have gone to Madrid for a variety of reasons. Some will be genuinely interested in Catholicism, a number will be taking advantage of some travel subsidy to see Spain and others will be there to socialise and to have sex.

I was disappointed to read that a religious fanatic, possibly a chemistry student, was arrested for planning to gas innocent protesters opposed to the Pope's visit. At a time when many Spanish people cannot afford to eat it is disgraceful that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being wasted on this visit.

I think most countries would be thrilled to host an event which costs them almost nothing and brings in a million visitors, spending money for up to two weeks.

Very secular!!

mccamleyc,

They are thrilled - the event is called Europride and was in Madrid a couple of years ago.

You can't mean this current event unless you consider approx €100m 'almost nothing'.

On the programme this morning someone said that people were being accommodated for the week for, I think, 40 Euro. Obviously the rest is coming from taxpayers, but at such a cheap rate a person I can see why people would take advantage of it. Also, given that the youth unemployment rate in Spain is 45 per cent there are many youths with a lot of time on their hands.

An incredible, peaceful and positive event and one that will also have brought huge income to Madrid. Only a bitter angry and quite literally hopeless group of malcontents could find anything to complain about, but silly me that's just what we have here in our happy secular western countries.

"It's estimated that 1.5 million young people from around the world have travelled to the Spanish capital to greet Pope Benedict "
***
This is the same event that earlier comments predicted would be virtually unattended?

Where was the pope standing when the above picture was taken?

There appears to be some confusion among the crowd.

post # 7

This is the same poster who has often been on here complaining about certain posters' lack of charity.

@9. romejellybeen :
One & the same.

(And the same poster looking for balance in articles & comments.)
I appreciate this article & have enjoyed watching some of the celebrations in Madrid on TV. Thank you!

newdwr54;

"Where was the pope standing when the above picture was taken?

There appears to be some confusion among the crowd."

If i may offer a suggestion, they are probably watching different large TV screens, which would have been strategically placed around the site. Without these, for the majority of pilgrims in a one-and-a-half million strong crowd, Pope Benedict would otherwise be only a small speck in the distance. Such are the considerations for someone who is the spiritual leader of around 1.15 billion people.

According to Reuters

A torrential rainstorm forced Pope Benedict to abandon a speech to hundreds of thousands of young people gathered at an aerodrome outside Madrid on Saturday.

Driving rain and wind forced the organisers of the event to recommend Benedict halt his address after delivering just a few opening words of welcome.

It meant the Pope couldn't give his speech on marriage, in apparent criticism of Spain’s legalisation of gay marriage.
I wonder how religious conservatives would react if the weather were to interrupt a speech condoning gay marriage- would they see it as the hand of God expressing displeasure, rather than the reality it was just the weather- Mother Nature taking on the Holy Father

Ryan.

It wouldnt be the first time that 'God' has intervened to undermine these people.

At the Mass in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow last year, the organisers were putting on a show of 'traditional' piety. Sung Mass, Mass setting with the 'new' Mass written into it, communion on the tongue and on bended knee for those hand-picked few who went to the Pope, etc..

There was a gale force wind. The guy who was singing the gospel lost the page and simply couldnt find it again, a priest giving out communion tripped up and the hosts went flying through the air. Subo - who had been brought in to boost the numbers - got her cue all wrong and started singing the verse during the chorus.

It was just as if God was showing what he thought of such a circus...

Theophane (@ 12) -

Such are the considerations for someone who is the spiritual leader of around 1.15 billion people.

On what basis is that number calculated?

Baptisms?

Or personal conviction?

LSV, #15;

Baptisms.

Probably the biggest single gathering in Spanish history. God bless the Pope!

mccamleyc,

you mean 'probably' in the jokey sense that Carlsberg use it I take it, unless you can substantiate it of course.

Since when do we have to "substantiate" every statement made on this site? It's been mentioned in several news reports and I've no reason to disbelieve it.

Probably beaten by the dos millones in Madrid to welcome home the World Cup. God bless Iniesta!

Probably beaten by Europride in 2007 with 2.5M participants (1.5M in the parade alone not counting those that watched), closely followed Madrid Pride 2009 with 1.5M participants. Of course Madrid pride is an annual local event and was competing with Barcelona, Valencia, Sitges, Maspalomas and every other major city in Europe. Not forgetting that Koln Pride at almost 1M is at the same time.

God bless feather Boas.

12. Theophane:

Ah. It is an image of the pope they are worshipping.

Thanks.

newdwr54, #22;

"Ah. It is an image of the pope they are worshipping."

Only the same sense that you or i might worship a television screen.

When the rain finished pouring down the Pope said that it was a blessing from God. It seems that God isn't so fond of the Japanese and Haitians.

Did it stay mainly in the plain?

23. Theophane wrote:

"Only the same sense that you or i might worship a television screen."

Indeed. Televisions are most worshipful.

newlach (@ 24) -

It seems that God isn't so fond of the Japanese and Haitians.

How many Haitian and Japanese people have you asked about this? I think their opinions count rather more than yours, unless, of course, you personally were caught up in these disasters and suffered serious injury and loss.

By the way... if God had been "nice" to the Haitians and the Japanese, would that actually make any difference to your opinion about Him? Or are you just casting around for any reason to justify your unbelief?

newlach (@ 1) -

The young people will have gone to Madrid for a variety of reasons. Some will be genuinely interested in Catholicism, a number will be taking advantage of some travel subsidy to see Spain and others will be there to socialise and to have sex.

Evidence please.

I suppose "some .... a number .... and others" could be quantified thus: 98% ... 1% ...1%.

Or it could be quantified in an infinite number of ways (if we factor in decimal places).

In other words, your comment isn't very informative. It could be informative, however, if you actually bothered to support it with something called evidence.

How about it?

92.At 22:51 23rd Aug 2011, newlach wrote:
"When the rain finished pouring down the Pope said that it was a blessing from God. It seems that God isn't so fond of the Japanese and Haitians."
***
Our National Cathedral in Washington got "smited" a bit yesterday in the earthquake.

Dave - wikipedia says 1.2 million participated in the Europride 2007 parade. The figure of 2.3 million comes from adding up participants at all events over a two week period - many of whom would have been counted multiple times. So the World Youth Day Mass with Pope Benedict on Sunday was the biggest single gathering in Spanish history. If you added up all the WYD events in the way Europride counts you'd have a figure of several million.

mccamleyc,

Wikipedia has several sets of numbers, the Spanish version has the march participants at 1.5M people, if you add to that the number of people watching you get a figure which could eclipse the popes. It really does not matter, if you are so desperate to have the biggest gathering then go ahead - fill your boots.

Right, it doesn't matter but you felt the need to correct me and then add the population of Madrid to the number at a march to get a bigger number. It matters when most media chose to ignore the event and focus on the small number of people who opposed it.

@32. mccamleyc:
Here in the States our media, for the most part, does the same thing with the annual Right to Life March in Washington, DC.Each January on the anniversary of Roe vs Wade -which legalized abortion on demand, thousands & thousands of folk from all over the US march from the White House to Capitol Hill. If by luck, the march is even given a passing comment on the evening news, the footage invariably focuses on the small groups of protestors, not the thousands of marchers trudging in the cold.

mccamleyc,

Don't exaggerate, population of Madrid lol.

Maybe most media chose to ignore it because their readers were not that interested except for what it was costing.

You are reacting as if your ego has been pricked because, although you tried, you were not the centre of attention. Good lesson - religion is not as relevant as it used to be and ostentatious displays such as the Madrid circus are looked in as anachronistic and out of place with the current financial crisis hitting Europe. Maybe some humility would go down better from one of the the richest private institutions in the world instead of spending other countries heath service money having a jamboree.

LSV 28

Did you not see what I wrote in my second post (5)? Young people with free time on their hands will be inclined to take advantage of subsidised accommodation in a place where there will be a lot of other young people. Had I known that a week's accommodation was available for 40 Euro I too would have gone... if I were a few years younger.

On the Japanese and Haitians question (27), well, I'll not be asking the dead ones.

newlach (@ 35) -

Young people with free time on their hands will be inclined to take advantage of subsidised accommodation in a place where there will be a lot of other young people.

In other words, you're speculating.

I asked for evidence, not speculation. There is a difference, you know.

On the Japanese and Haitians question (27), well, I'll not be asking the dead ones.

A cute answer.

But also a rather surprising answer from someone like you, given your views expressed on the recent Open Thread. You seem concerned about the dead of Haiti and Japan, and use (or rather abuse) their deaths to support your misguided and embittered view of God. But why are you concerned? You are someone who seems completely unconcerned about the fact that you support a policy which terminates the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable of people, and yet you attempt to give the impression that you care about the deaths of people who died in natural disasters.

Furthermore, don't you think the bereaved relatives have more right to pontificate about God than you have, with respect to the recent disasters in Haiti and Japan?

Anyway, you carry on making up your own special flavour of morality as you go along. But just remember that if you do so, you disqualify yourself from making any kind of moral argument, given your lack of objectivity. As I said on another thread, you've lost all moral credibility after your display of indignation at the theft of three easily replaceable bottles of water, contrasted with your glib and nonchalant acceptance of the destruction of precious irreplaceable human lives.

So an event which is not relevant and is anachronistic draws the biggest crowd in Spanish history but isn't news because the media decide it isn't. Is this supposed to be journalism? To give William his due, he ran with the real story.

Actually what I said was that the media decided it wasn't of interest to their readership except for the financial drain on the countries resources. So it is news - just not the news you wanted it to be. You do not decide on what aspects journalists cover, they do. Maybe you should ask yourself why they were more interested in covering the cost than the content. Try not to pull the victim card and actually think why people (and the media) have objections to this kind of circus. Having lived in Spain I know they are not as actively catholic as they are portrayed and detest being told what to do (even by their own government). They have equal marriage so they didn't listen much to the Vatican there and do you know - the world has not ended and it has not destroyed marriage - who'd have thunk.

btw I see that Brazil is the next WYD, the target to beat there is 3.2M (parade participants) from Sau Paulo Pride. I know it is not like for like because Pride is only a wee local event and yours is a big global majestic one but it's still a fair target.