Benedict XVI’s trip to Spain this year for the jubilee year celebrating the Apostle James is a first in history — a Pope has never expressly gone to Spain for the event.
Benedict XVI will arrive in Santiago on Nov. 6, Archbishop Julián Barrio Barrio affirmed on Tuesday at a press conference regarding the papal visit.
The Santiago prelate noted the uniqueness of the trip: “It is the first time in the history of the Church that in a holy year the Pope has wished to come expressly,” said the archbishop, who clarified that Pope John Paul II visited this city in 1982 — which was also a jubilee year — “but he did so on the occasion of the pastoral visit he made that year to Spain. On this occasion the Pope has wished to come expressly. Hence the exceptional nature of this event.”
There is a jubilee year in celebration of the apostle — known as a Jacobeo year — every time his July 25 feast day falls on a Sunday.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain, JULY 6, 2010 (Zenit.org)