BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI is making his second visit to Spain, where he will consecrate a church and pray at the tomb of the apostle James, officials said.
The pope's first stop on his two-day trip Saturday is Santiago de Compostela, in Spain's northwestern tip, an important pilgrimage site for centuries, CNN reported. The cathedral there was built 900 years ago atop what is said to be the tomb of St. James, an apostle of Jesus.
Saturday evening the pope heads across Spain to Barcelona, which is home to the Sagrada Familia, or "holy family" church, still under construction after more than 100 years. Benedict is expected to designate the church a basilica, a special honor in Roman Catholicism.
The Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi only lived to see one tower and most of one facade finished by the time he died in 1926.
"The interior space of the church, the sacred space of the church, is finished, and for that, the pope comes here to consecrate the church," said Jordi Fauli, its deputy architect.
Gaudi planned the church to have 18 towers -- 12 for the apostles and the tallest for Jesus. Only eight are finished.
Fauli said the privately financed work might be completed by 2026, on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.
Benedict has planned a third visit to Spain for World Youth Day, a sign of how important the Vatican considers the health of the church in Spain.
Just 14.4% of Spaniards regularly attend mass, and legal changes to allow divorce; gay marriage and abortion have caused concern to the Catholic Church. Still, 73 percent of Spaniards define themselves as Catholic, the BBC reported.
