The Pope Dedicates La Sagrada Família

As  I write, His Holiness has just begun the Mass of Dedication of that still-unfinished masterpiece, Gaudí's "Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family" in Barcelona.  Indeed, he will name it a Basilica.  What a rebuke to all who say regnare Christum nolumus, "we don't want Christ to reign", to see this amazing work of art, raised in honour of God, now solemnly blessed: a temple of expiation, indeed, wherein the Lamb once slain will stand upon the altar, making present His Sacrifice in reparation for all sin.

(The Mass is in an interesting combination of Catalan, Spanish and Latin.)

To think that many self-styled intellectuals petitioned for the Sagrada Família to be left unfinished - for to complete it would be an affront to secular Spain.  Just as during the Civil War, Catholics are to have no rights.  The building has always been a privately-funded undertaking, so how dare they try to stop people freely doing as they please!  Better the turban than the mitre?

Antoni Gaudí is now styled Servant of God: may God deign to glorify His servant if it be to His honour and will help forward our salvation, that the Church bravely militant here below may recognize him as a hero of the Church triumphant above, an artist-saint like the Blessed Antony of Fiesole, a.k.a. Fra Angelico.  "Beauty will save the world."