Pope Francis is against the secession of the Spanish region known as Catalonia that is threatening to declare its independence. This claim comes from the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican, who had a private meeting with the pontiff on October 2.
Ambassador Gerardo Bugallo, who was recently appointed to the position, was having his first official meeting with Francis, a day after a controversial independence referendum in Catalonia.
Before it took place, the national government and the federal courts declared the voting illegal, claiming it violated the constitution, and have since refused to acknowledge it.
According to the weekly Catholic magazine Vida Nueva, the Pope spoke to Bugallo about the “Holy See’s position against every self-determination process that is not justified by a process of decolonization.”
The piece was signed by Antonio Pelayo, the magazine’s correspondent in Rome, and ecclesial councilor of the embassy. He also wrote that the Pope “manifested the rejection by the Church to every attitude that is not rooted in respect to the constituted legality.”
