Yesterday, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were at Madrid's Barajas airport to welcome Pope Benedict XVI to Spain. This is Pope's third visit to Spain during his 6 years of pontiff and comes in a time when Spain's economy is struggling to recover. They were also joined by Rouco Varela, the Archbishop of Madrid.

Pope Benedict is in Spain to join the Worth Youth Day festivities. More than one million people were expected to pour into Madrid for a week of celebrating the Catholic young population, youth population which has a large proportion of unemployed. The visit was sparked in the recent days by a big number of protests because of its high cost. There have been protesters marching in the city's central plaza to protest the 50 million euro price tag for the visit.

The King personally thanked the Pope for visiting Spain for the third time. Pope will also meet with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose government has promoted several policies opposed by the church, including relaxing Spain's divorce laws, easing restrictions on abortion, legalizing same-sex marriage and allowing gay couples to adopt children.

Notable events on his schedule are a grand mass in Madrid's Plaza Cibeles on Sunday and a meeting with a 103-year-old nun who will be leaving her convent for the first time in 84 years to attend the meeting.