Will the presence of the Pope in Spain be a moment of spiritual uplift or an unhelpful distraction?
That latter possibility was captured by a recent banner unfurled by indignados protestors in advance of the trip: “Fewer crucifixes and more jobs!”
A mounting debt crisis has raised fears that Italy and Spain, the third- and fourth-largest economies in the eurozone, may follow smaller nations such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal into possible bankruptcy.
At the intellectual level, Benedict has already delivered his response to the unfolding “Great Recession” in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, arguing that economic recovery is dependent upon moral and spiritual renewal. Structures won’t change for the better, he argued, unless individual hearts change first.
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