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Beatifications stir unrest in Spain - Critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Playing politics? The Vatican!? We're shocked! -NY Transfer]
sent by Tim Murphy -activ-l
LA Times via The Boston Globe - Oct 29, 2007
www.boston.com
Beatifications stir unrest in Spain
Critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
Bitter memories of Spain's Civil War were on center stage
here yesterday as the Vatican put 498 slain Spanish priests and nuns
from that divisive era on the path to sainthood.
The Mass recognizing the Catholic men and women killed around the time
of the 1936-39 Civil War was the largest beatification ceremony in
church history. Thousands of pilgrims who traveled from Spain filled St.
Peter's Square, waving yellow-and-red national flags and pictures of the
newly beatified, whom the church considers to be martyrs.
"For a Catholic Spain, they died," read one huge banner.
However, the beatifications have stirred controversy in Spain, where
critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics by promoting recognition
of one side of the war's protagonists.
Moreover, the timing of the ceremony, and the fact that it was held at
the Vatican with an appearance by Pope Benedict XVI, was seen by many as
an ideologically motivated gesture of support for a Catholic Church at
loggerheads with the leftist Spanish government.
The church says the priests and nuns, as well as a handful of lay
religious people, were killed decades ago by pro-leftist forces because
of their Catholicism - "heroic witnesses of the faith," as the pope
called them yesterday.
Many in Spain's Catholic Church sided with the Fascists led by General
Francisco Franco, who overthrew the elected leftist government,
eventually won the war, and ruled as a dictator for nearly four decades,
granting wide power and influence to the church. Spain remains deeply
polarized today, and the nation is struggling to come to terms with its
past. This week, a hard-fought "historical memory" law goes before the
Spanish Parliament, which acknowledges in the most comprehensive form to
date the atrocities of the Franco regime, while giving a nod to those
killed for their religious beliefs. It will finance exhumation of
Franco-era mass graves, pay reparations to his victims, and cancel
summary court judgments against opponents of the regime.
The Vatican and organizers of yesterday's ceremony insisted it was not
political.
"To beatify a martyr, or a group of martyrs, has no political meaning,
but only exclusively a religious one," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz,
a member of the ultraconservative Opus Dei organization, which is
especially dominant in Spain, told an Italian newspaper.
Later yesterday, protesters scuffled with Catholic adherents outside a
church known for its association with Opus Dei. The protesters displayed
a banner that, repeating graffiti that has popped up in Spain, said:
"Those who have killed, tortured, and exploited cannot be beatified."
They displayed the banner with a replica of Picasso's famous Spanish War
painting "Guernica." The churchgoers tore up the banner that portrays
the horrors of war as the two groups brawled, Italian television
reported.
Benedict, unlike his predecessor, John Paul II, rarely presides over
beatifications, so his choice to appear yesterday was significant. He
did not attend yesterday's Mass, but as it concluded he stepped onto his
balcony above St. Peter's Square to bless the audience and salute the
martyrs and their followers. Martyrdom, he said, "is a testimony as
important as ever in today's secularized societies."
"The beatifications today remind us of the importance of humbly
following our Lord even to the point of offering our lives for the
faith," Benedict added.
Spain was once one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. The current
government of Prime Minister Josi Luis Rodrmguez Zapatero has trimmed
Catholic Church budgets in public schools and pushed a liberal social
agenda that includes the legalization of gay marriage and making it
easier to obtain abortions and divorces.
Cardinal Josi Saraiva Martins, a Portuguese prelate who heads the
Vatican department that oversees the making of saints, led yesterday's
beatification and used it to emphasize Catholic teachings that are being
challenged in today's Spain.
The crowd in St. Peter's Square turned ecstatic at the pope's appearance
and said it felt vindication for its histories.
"I have waited for this day for years," said Eulalia Caldis, a Spaniard
in her 60s whose aunt was Catalina Caldis, a nun killed in Barcelona on
July 23, 1936.
"This is a huge support for our church, which has been a little down
lately," said Aurora Serrano, 60, who came from Toledo, Spain, in
support of Liberio Gonzalez, a priest killed in August 1936.
Another controversy that touched on the beatifications involves Father
Gabino Olaso Zabala, who was also killed in August 1936. Decades
earlier, he was stationed as a missionary in the Philippines, where
witnesses said Olaso was involved in the torture of a priest who was
said to have supported the rebellion against Spanish occupiers of the
island nation.
Father Fernando Rojo, the Spanish-born postulator, or handler, of
Olaso's case and that of the other Augustinian priests, said that such
background was not important to the martyr's cause. Whether or not Olaso
was a torturer, the key fact is that he died for his faith, he said.
"We are humans; we can have defects, but at the hour of truth, the
question is whether he renounced his faith," Rojo said in an interview
ahead of yesterday's ceremony.
Under church rules, a martyr, someone killed expressly for his or her
Catholicism, can be beatified without having performed a miracle. To be
canonized as a saint, however, the person must be credited with a
miracle, usually an unexplainable medical cure.
) Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
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Hash: SHA1
Beatifications stir unrest in Spain - Critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Playing politics? The Vatican!? We're shocked! -NY Transfer]
sent by Tim Murphy -activ-l
LA Times via The Boston Globe - Oct 29, 2007
www.boston.com
Beatifications stir unrest in Spain
Critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
Bitter memories of Spain's Civil War were on center stage
here yesterday as the Vatican put 498 slain Spanish priests and nuns
from that divisive era on the path to sainthood.
The Mass recognizing the Catholic men and women killed around the time
of the 1936-39 Civil War was the largest beatification ceremony in
church history. Thousands of pilgrims who traveled from Spain filled St.
Peter's Square, waving yellow-and-red national flags and pictures of the
newly beatified, whom the church considers to be martyrs.
"For a Catholic Spain, they died," read one huge banner.
However, the beatifications have stirred controversy in Spain, where
critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics by promoting recognition
of one side of the war's protagonists.
Moreover, the timing of the ceremony, and the fact that it was held at
the Vatican with an appearance by Pope Benedict XVI, was seen by many as
an ideologically motivated gesture of support for a Catholic Church at
loggerheads with the leftist Spanish government.
The church says the priests and nuns, as well as a handful of lay
religious people, were killed decades ago by pro-leftist forces because
of their Catholicism - "heroic witnesses of the faith," as the pope
called them yesterday.
Many in Spain's Catholic Church sided with the Fascists led by General
Francisco Franco, who overthrew the elected leftist government,
eventually won the war, and ruled as a dictator for nearly four decades,
granting wide power and influence to the church. Spain remains deeply
polarized today, and the nation is struggling to come to terms with its
past. This week, a hard-fought "historical memory" law goes before the
Spanish Parliament, which acknowledges in the most comprehensive form to
date the atrocities of the Franco regime, while giving a nod to those
killed for their religious beliefs. It will finance exhumation of
Franco-era mass graves, pay reparations to his victims, and cancel
summary court judgments against opponents of the regime.
The Vatican and organizers of yesterday's ceremony insisted it was not
political.
"To beatify a martyr, or a group of martyrs, has no political meaning,
but only exclusively a religious one," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz,
a member of the ultraconservative Opus Dei organization, which is
especially dominant in Spain, told an Italian newspaper.
Later yesterday, protesters scuffled with Catholic adherents outside a
church known for its association with Opus Dei. The protesters displayed
a banner that, repeating graffiti that has popped up in Spain, said:
"Those who have killed, tortured, and exploited cannot be beatified."
They displayed the banner with a replica of Picasso's famous Spanish War
painting "Guernica." The churchgoers tore up the banner that portrays
the horrors of war as the two groups brawled, Italian television
reported.
Benedict, unlike his predecessor, John Paul II, rarely presides over
beatifications, so his choice to appear yesterday was significant. He
did not attend yesterday's Mass, but as it concluded he stepped onto his
balcony above St. Peter's Square to bless the audience and salute the
martyrs and their followers. Martyrdom, he said, "is a testimony as
important as ever in today's secularized societies."
"The beatifications today remind us of the importance of humbly
following our Lord even to the point of offering our lives for the
faith," Benedict added.
Spain was once one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. The current
government of Prime Minister Josi Luis Rodrmguez Zapatero has trimmed
Catholic Church budgets in public schools and pushed a liberal social
agenda that includes the legalization of gay marriage and making it
easier to obtain abortions and divorces.
Cardinal Josi Saraiva Martins, a Portuguese prelate who heads the
Vatican department that oversees the making of saints, led yesterday's
beatification and used it to emphasize Catholic teachings that are being
challenged in today's Spain.
The crowd in St. Peter's Square turned ecstatic at the pope's appearance
and said it felt vindication for its histories.
"I have waited for this day for years," said Eulalia Caldis, a Spaniard
in her 60s whose aunt was Catalina Caldis, a nun killed in Barcelona on
July 23, 1936.
"This is a huge support for our church, which has been a little down
lately," said Aurora Serrano, 60, who came from Toledo, Spain, in
support of Liberio Gonzalez, a priest killed in August 1936.
Another controversy that touched on the beatifications involves Father
Gabino Olaso Zabala, who was also killed in August 1936. Decades
earlier, he was stationed as a missionary in the Philippines, where
witnesses said Olaso was involved in the torture of a priest who was
said to have supported the rebellion against Spanish occupiers of the
island nation.
Father Fernando Rojo, the Spanish-born postulator, or handler, of
Olaso's case and that of the other Augustinian priests, said that such
background was not important to the martyr's cause. Whether or not Olaso
was a torturer, the key fact is that he died for his faith, he said.
"We are humans; we can have defects, but at the hour of truth, the
question is whether he renounced his faith," Rojo said in an interview
ahead of yesterday's ceremony.
Under church rules, a martyr, someone killed expressly for his or her
Catholicism, can be beatified without having performed a miracle. To be
canonized as a saint, however, the person must be credited with a
miracle, usually an unexplainable medical cure.
) Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
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