Pope Visits Spain to Hail Family Values

Pope Benedict XVI flies to Spain tomorrow to promote the Vatican version of family values to a country whose Socialist government has recently introduced gay marriage and remains intent on reducing the power of the church.

The Pope will meet prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has aroused the ire of the church in fields as varied as education, divorce and gay rights. Benedict is due to spend Saturday and Sunday at the church's World Meeting of Families in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia.

He used his traditional Sunday blessing at the weekend to fire what many saw as a warning shot before his Spanish trip. "I ask your prayer for all families, that they will live in accordance with their God-given vocation and benefit from just governmental policies that safeguard their fundamental role in society," he said.

Church and government have been at loggerheads in Spain since Mr Zapatero came to power in 2004. "The time has come to respect the sexual choices of every individual, to offer a lay vision of society in which no one imposes his beliefs," the Socialist prime minister declared shortly after his election.

Since then divorce has been made easier, gay marriage introduced and religious education in schools downgraded. Spanish bishops have joined street demonstrations against both a new education bill and gay marriage.