The bishops’ conference of Spain warned of conflict over government plans to remove Catholic symbols from a civil war memorial site near Madrid from which the remains of former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco were exhumed a year ago.
The bishops’ conference of Spain warned of conflict over government plans to remove Catholic symbols from a civil war memorial site near Madrid from which the remains of former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco were exhumed a year ago.
“If there is a cross and basilica, it’s important there should also be a community to maintain worship there. We must immunize ourselves against a culture of confrontation,” said Auxiliary Bishop Luis Arguello Garcia of Valladolid, Spain, secretary general of the bishops’ conference.
“People in the church have different ideological perspectives, and problems occur when attempts are made to put faith at the service of one ideology,” he said of a draft law by the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez that would convert the Valley of the Fallen into a civil cemetery.
The change would lead to the closing of a Benedictine monastery and removing other Catholic features at the site.