No doubt like many readers, I’m racing to get several things done before I go on holiday — in my case, that includes writing this column. And the annual pre-holiday crunch makes for an even more excruciating ‘to-do’ list than usual. But it was the Pope, of all people, who made me acknowledge that a hard cut-off for work projects is really a blessing in disguise.
The pontiff was on a visit to Barcelona this summer, where he gave a papal benediction to the Sagrada Família, architect Antoni Gaudí’s bizarre modernist sand-sculpture cathedral, which remains unfinished 100 years after his death in 1926.
A century on, and with a massive mosaic cross now erected on the tallest tower, Pope Leo decided it was finally time to mark a near-concluding moment in this monumental construction project. Hence the special Mass for the final and tallest tower’s completion.