Pope addresses huge Catholic mass in Spain in support of family

(December 29, 2008) Hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday attended an open-air Catholic mass in central Madrid aimed at promoting family values in defiance of Spain’s Socialist government’s sweeping reforms. Pope Benedict XVI addressed the faithful from Rome on giant screens set up in the Plaza Colon, urging people to keep family values strong. "Dear families, don't allow love, the opening to life and the incomparable links that unite our family to be weakened," the pope said during his midday Sunday Angelus prayer. The church’s liturgical calendar dedicates Sunday after Christmas to the Holy Family. Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid issued an appeal against "the shocking cruelty" of abortion, calling on families to overcome the "culture of death." Spain's Socialist government has said it plans to introduce a new law that would offer greater legal protection for women who wish to have an abortion and doctors who carry out the procedure. Since first coming to office in 2004, the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has moved to transform Spanish society with a series of liberal social reforms, including same-sex marriages and fast-track divorce, which have enraged the Roman Catholic Church.