La Sagrada Familia is an incredible architectural achievement.  Gaudi designed and built many structures around Barcelona, but this church is the most spectacular.

We arrived at Fatima on a special day of the year, so there were large crowds of pilgrims.  I remember seeing pilgrims crawling on their knees the length of the giant paved area in front of the shrine.  And there was a candlelight procession that night of the 25,000 or so pilgrims, very moving.

Our Mass in Santiago de Compostela was on September 11, 2002, the first anniversary of 9/11.  We were in a large chapel within the gigantic cathedral.  Someone, maybe Msgr, had placed a small American flag on the podium.  Our chapel was surrounded by open iron bars, so it was visible from the main sanctuary.  We were obviously saying Mass in English, so a person could easily conclude we were Americans.  When I turned around after receiving communion, I saw a crowd of maybe two hundred people had surrounded our chapel, quietly paying homage to America’s tragedy.  This was before the desert wars and the United States still enjoyed the deep sympathy of the world.  It was very touching, and many of the visitors stayed and spoke to us and expressed greetings and solidarity.