Madrid's Plaza de Colon and surrounding areas were host to people from throughout the country to hear speakers, including Pope Benedict XVI, condemn the Spanish government, led by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, for its 2005 affirmation of marriage rights for same-sex couples and easing of the divorce process.

"These atheist, irreligious governments want to make us believe that our life has no meaning," said event organizer and Catholic activist Kiko Arguello, "and that isn't true."

According to the Pope, such measures threaten the "traditional family," and therefore, humanity. During the Sunday Angelus prayer, the Pope said that the family is based on "the indissoluble union of man and woman," and "the place in which human life is sheltered and protected from its beginning until its natural end."

"It is worthwhile to work for the family and marriage," he continued, via live video link, "because it is worthwhile to work for the human being, the most precious being created by God."

Attendance estimates range anywhere from 150,000 to 2 million.

Predominantly Catholic Spain has undergone a liberalization in the decades since the death of dictator General Francisco Franco. Under Franco's rule, homosexuality was criminalized, and gays were imprisoned, tortured and sometimes executed. Franco died in 1975, but homosexuality remained a crime in Spain until 1979, with homosexuality-related convictions staying on citizens' records until 2001.

(with wire reports)