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Pope Benedict XIV is in Spain for the next few days to preside over World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic event which young people celebrate their faith. His Holiness was welcomed to Madrid by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia before heading off to begin his busy schedule.
 Click here for more photos at Daylife.com But the pontiff still had time to meet other members of Spanish royalty. Some time after his arrival, the Pope went to Zarzuela Palace where he met with Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia and their two daughters, Infantas Leonor and Sofia, and Infanta Elena and her two children, Forlian Felipe and Victoria.
During the photo op, the royals lined up alongside the Pope so the media could photograph them. However, 4 year old Infanta Sofia got a little antsy during the session and was caught yawning a few times. Her big sister, Leonor, was well behaved and got a big kiss from her father.
1.5 million Catholics are in Madrid for World Youth Day. This is the pontiff”s third trip to Spain, having done a state visit just last year. The country has sparked the ire of the Catholic church by allowing gay marriage and loosening up on abortion and divorce, three issues the church is staunchly conservative on.
Source: Huffington Post, Hello!
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, spent the weekend in Spain for a two day visit. He was there mainly to push the Church’s agenda in an increasingly secular country, but also to visit a Galician cathedral and consecrate a Barcelona basilica.
 Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images The Pope arrived in Santiago de Compostela and was greeted by the heir to the Spanish throne, Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia. He visited the cathedral, which has been the site of the St. James celebrations this year. There, the pontiff prayed at what it believed to be the burial place of the apostle.
Later in the day, the pope held an open air mass at Obradoiro square which Felipe and Letizia attended.
On Sunday, Benedict went to Barcelona to consecrate Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished basilica, the Sagrada Familia. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were there for the event, along with 6,500 faithful Spaniards. The royal couple were then present for the mass inside the basilica.
The Pope has been openly blasting Spain’s liberal society during this visit. The country has loosened up abortion laws and legalized gay marriage in recent years.
 REUTERS/Andres Ballesteros/Pool “I too wish to encourage Spain and Europe to build their present and to project their future on the basis of the authentic truth about man, on the basis of freedom which respects this truth and never harms it,” he said during the mass in Obradoiro square.
“The generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life,” the pope said in Barcelona.
“For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the family,” he added.
Some Spaniards have been protesting the pontiff’s visit. There was a gay kiss-in where hundreds of gay couples kissed in the Barcelona streets as the pope mobile drove by.
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to return to Spain next year. He will attend World Youth Day in Madrid.
Sources: AFP, The Reader, Deutsche Welle
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the U.K. Thursday for the first ever papal state visit to the country. While many Britons were not happy to see him in their country, Queen Elizabeth II treated him like any other guest in her country.
 AP Photo/Dylan Martinez, Pool The Pontiff was welcomed by Prince Philip as he stepped off the plane in Edinburgh, Scotland. He then later met with Queen Elizabeth at Holyrood Palace, her official residence in Edinburgh. There was then an official welcoming ceremony, including a military display and the playing of the national anthem, in which the Pope removed his “zucchetto” or skullcap.
Afterward, the head of the Roman Catholic Church met with dignitaries such as the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.
He then entered Holyrood with the Queen and her husband. Inside, the British monarch exchanged gifts with the Pope.
Also inside Holyrood, both Pope Benedict and the Queen gave speeches about the historic state visit. The Pontiff thanked the Queen and her husband, the British government and people for their welcome. He also discussed the history of Christianity in Britain, and praised the country for fighting slavery and working on tolerance in the multicultural society. However, the Pope’s comparison of atheism to Nazism did not go over very well to many in the U.K.
When it was Queen Elizabeth’s turn to speak, she thanked the Pope for agreeing to come to her country (she invited him), and talked about Pope John Paul II’s 1982 visit, which was simply an official trip rather than a state. Her Majesty also mentioned the Catholic church’s role in education and peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
Pope Benedict XVI’s visit comes nearly 500 years after England split with the Catholic Church to create the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth II is the Church’s ceremonial head.
Source: AFP, British Royal Family Examiner
 AP Photo/Alessandro Bianchi, pool On Friday, Monaco’s Prince Albert II met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. The two discussed issues such as the defense of life, morality for young people, as well as the environment, which both leaders care much for.
On the topic of defense of life, there is a possibility that the Pope and the Prince touched on stem cell research. Prince Albert is patron of the 2nd International Congress on Responsible Stem Cell Research, which would hold its meeting in Monaco in November. The Congress is organized by the World Federation of the Catholic Medical Association.
The issue to be talked about next month would be “Adult Somatic Stem Cells: New Perspectives.”
 Reuters King Albert II and Queen Paola of Belgium were at St. Peter’s Basillica Sunday, to witness the canonization of Father Damien, a 19th century Belgian priest who dedicated his life to lepers in Hawaii. The King and Queen were part of the Belgian contingent for the ceremony.
Father Damien was one of five Catholics elevated to sainthood by Pope Benedict XVI. He had grown up in the Flemish speaking areas of Belgium before being sent to Hawaii. There, he began working with its lepers despite being told by the Vatican to leave.
On Saturday, the royal couple met with the Pope at the Vatican. He had given them a ceramic bas-relief of the wedding in Cana back in July. It was a gift to commemorate the King and Queen’s 50th wedding anniversary.
 monarchie.lu On Wednesday, Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri was the recepient of the Van Thuan award at the Palazzo Colonna in Rome. The award, named after Cardinal Van Thuân, is given to those who defend human rights. The Grand Duke was awarded for his right to life efforts and defense of religious freedom.
Last year, Henri, a devout Roman Catholic, lost his constitutional powers when he refused to sign a bill that would have allowed euthanasia in his tiny country.
Henri was accompanied by his son and heir, Guillaume. His wife, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, is recovering from surgery,
On Thursday, the Grand Duke and his son met with Pope Benedict XVI at his summer estate in Castel Gandolfo.
Jordan’s King and Queen welcomed the head of the Roman Catholic Church at Queen Alia airport in Amman Friday. The pontiff is beginning his week long tour of the Mideast, and Jordan was the first Arab country he set foot in.
 - AP
The AFP reported Queen Rania has set up a Twitter account just in time for the papal visit.
The tech-savvy Queen “twittered”, “Just choppered to airport to receive the Pope. Husband piloting, he got acrobatic to quiet butterflies in stomach… told u he was action man!”
She later added, “Just listened to Pope’s speech. Our region so needs a message of Peace,”
“Special day here in Amman; not everyday pope drop s by 4 a visit.”
This is not the first time Queen Rania has used the latest technology to reach out to people. Last year, she started her own YouTube channel to combat stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims and to broaden dialogue between the two groups.
During Pope Benedict XVI’s time in the Hashemite Kingdom, he will meet with Muslim leaders, and with Iraqi Christians who living as refugees in Jordan.
After Jordan, the Pope will move on to Israel and the Palestinian territories in hopes of giving spiritual advice to the conflict between the two groups.
Prince Charles is in Italy for the early part of this week to promote British business, as well as environmental issues – a topic close to his heart. 
The heir to the British throne discussed the issue first with Pope Benedict XVI, who also has spoken out about climate change.
“The cordial discussions provided an opportunity for an exchange of views on certain questions of mutual interest, including the human promotion and development of peoples, environment protection and the importance of intercultural and interreligious dialogue for furthering peace and justice in the world,” Vatican spokesman the Reverend Frederico Lombardi told reporters after the talks.
Later, the Prince, who is accompanied by wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, talked about the environment with Italian lawmakers.
“History will judge us by how we respond to climate change. Do we want our children and grandchildren to … see this as the time we allowed a new darkness to sprawl across our future?”
Prince Charles insisted there was only 98 more months to tackle global warming.
“If we are to bequeath to our children a world that is fit to inhabit, then I fear we must act now. What on earth is the point of procrastinating?’
“The response we make now to the challenges will be the single most critical element defining our era, and it will be the one by which our generation will be judged,” he said.
“The world is struggling with the consequences of the economic crisis in which we find ourselves (but) any of the difficulties we face today will be as nothing when the full horror of global warming unfolds.”
Concluding in Italian, the Prince of Wales said: “If we don’t succeed … our grandchildren will never, ever forgive us.”
King Juan Carlos was one of the Spanish leaders Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone met with during his visit to Spain.
The point of the visit was to smooth relations between the Holy See and the mostly Catholic, yet secular Spain.
Relations between the two countries have been strained since a liberal government was elected in 2004. The Vatican has called Spain the leader of Europe’s liberal secularism. It has criticized Spain legalizing same-sex marriage and easing divorce laws. Spain has also irked the Holy See by aiming to ease abortion restrictions and allowing euthanasia.
But this time around, the Spanish government and the Pope’s right hand man were cordial to each other. There was even discussion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain in either 2010 or 2011.
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