The Cross: The Pope’s trip to Spain was a popular success, particularly in Madrid. How do you explain this enthusiasm? Is it part of a broader dynamic in Spain, where the Catholic religion appears today to be less polarized?
Fabrice Hadjadj: Spain is not Italy or France. In Italy, Catholicism has become diluted in culture, in France, it has rather become fixed in “values”. What remains in Spain, despite a distance from the clergy and purity of morals, is popular devotion. I think of these processions, from the Basque Country to Andalusia, at Christmas, during Holy Week, as part of various ferias where the celebration of the Blessed Sacrament is soon followed by fireworks and a bullfight.
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