Pope Benedict in Spain - What kind of welcome?

PROTESTS and riots greeted Pope Benedict’s arrival in Madrid for a four-day visit yesterday.

Spain has a long and deep relationship with Catholicism. Of all European countries its relationship with that faith seems, along with Italy’s, closest to ours.

The protests are centred on the cost of such a visit — €50 million in this instance — as Spain is facing huge unemployment and severe austerity measures to balance the public finances. In our case there is the added dimension of the child abuse scandals and the appalling cover-ups by the hierarchy.

In this context it might be a worthwhile exercise to wonder what kind of a welcome the Pope might get if he was to visit this country. It is hard to imagine that it would be as universal as it was in 1979.