Benedict XVI comes to Santiago and Barcelona, but undoubtedly he wants to speak to the whole West. Santiago evokes the Christian roots of Europe: that "Europe, be yourself", of John Paul II in 1982, which invited to rediscover spiritual unity, "in a climate of plenary session of the Executive Council respect for other religions and genuine freedoms", so that Europe can "still be a beacon of civilization and a stimulus of progress for the world".

The temple of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona represents a successful synthesis between faith and culture, which has the family as its center and motive. The Pope will allude to its beauty, the meaning of which is none other than to worship God. However, this worship must lead to respect for the dignity of persons and the promotion of the family; and, therefore, to respect for life and to every action demanded by justice and extended by charity, especially in favor of those most in need.

In his defense of reason, Benedict XVI criticizes the fact that modernity has dwarfed it, reducing it to mathematics and empirical methods, which partially explain things. This is so, because only a reason open - through ethics and religion - to the origin, meaning and destiny of human life and of the world serves science for authentic progress, serves for dialogue (which implies listening to and learning from the other) with cultures, and serves in the public discussion to defend against ideological manipulations.