On the Road: "Truth and Freedom"

As previously noted, this weekend's seeing the 18th foreign tour of B16's pontificate... and shortly after arriving for the first leg of his second visit to Spain, the "Pilgrim Pope" sent up this memorable nugget in his remarks at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the "House of St James":

Through faith we are introduced to the mystery of love that is the Most Holy Trinity. We are in some sense embraced by God, transformed by his love. The Church is this embrace of God, in which men and women learn also to embrace their brothers and sisters and to discover in them the divine image and likeness which constitutes the deepest truth of their existence, and which is the origin of genuine freedom.

Truth and freedom are closely and necessarily related. Honestly seeking and aspiring to truth is the condition of authentic freedom. One cannot live without the other. The Church, which desires to serve unreservedly the human person and his dignity, stands at the service of both truth and freedom. She cannot renounce either, because what is at stake is man himself, because she is moved by love for man, “the only creature on earth which God has wanted for its own sake” (Gaudium et Spes, 24), and because without this aspiration for truth, justice and freedom, man would lose his very self.

After an early-evening Mass at the pilgrim mecca, the pontiff heads tonight to Barcelona, where the weekend jaunt will climax with tomorrow morning's dedication of Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece -- the city's iconic temple of the Sagrada Familia -- during what's said to be the first Mass in the structure, its construction begun in 1882.

PHOTOS: AP(1); Reuters(2)

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