The Spanish parliament has called upon the country's Ministry of Public Works to stop building a high-speed train tunnel next to Antoni Gaudis seminal Sagrada Familia, the towering Barcelona church that Surrealist Salvador Dali once dubbed a “tactile erogenous zone.” Despite the vote in favor of conservationist protesters who allege that the construction project could lead to the collapse of the still-incomplete 20,000-ton building, the ruling Socialist government has indicated that it will continue with the project since the vote was nonbinding, according to the Independent.

Opponents to the planned train line, which designed to connect Barcelona with the French border, argue that it would run too close to the iconic building — at the closest point, the tunnel will come within 13 feet of the structure. However, the Ministry of Public Works (part of the Spain's executive branch, as opposed to the legislative-branch parliament) has maintained that the project is structurally sound and that delaying the project for further study or to plot a new path for the train line would be prohibitively expensive, possibly setting the transit project back two years. Opponents of the rail line said that they would file suit in Spanish court, seeking an injunction to cease work on the project.

In recent years, public calls for Gaudi — who has been dubbed "God's Architect" for the religiosity of his eccentric designs — to be beatified as a saint have increased, and a society lobbying for that cause now counts 80,000 members. The Pope is said to be planning a visit to consecrate the spectacularly elaborate church, which has been under construction since 1882 and now carries a 2025 completion date (though it is planned to begin hosting religious services later this year).