Coronavirus Pretext: Does Spain's Left Dream of Dictatorship and Persecution of the Church?

Cardinal Canizares in the sights of a radical left that many Spaniards suspect are dreaming of dictatorship and persecution of the church – as in 1936.

(Madrid) In Spain, parts of the left yearn for the anti-church Popular Front climate of 1936. The pretext and instrument of Church persecution today is the Corona crisis. The left-wing government effectively repealed parts of the constitution, including the right to freedom of religion, thereby massively incorporating the public, social and private lives of citizens. It took a few weeks, but more and more people are realizing that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (PSOE) and other members of the socialist PSOE and radical left-wing Podemos government have justified the radical measures with absurd claims. Statements that were claimed to have been made by government representatives of other countries. The suspicion of central authorities and hidden puppet masters make the rounds. The result is increasingly vociferous protests throughout Spain, which the media in Central Europe do not report. This selective reporting, too, is increasingly aroused suspicion and mistrust. The lasnt barrel to overflow was brought on by the attack against Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera.

Display

The political left has targeted Cardinal Canizares who is being accused of violating the Corona requirements. In 2014, shortly before the first Family Synod, Pope Francis promoted him to archbishop of Valencia and thus away from the Roman Curia. Previously, he was Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments by Pope Benedict XVI. Before Benedict appointed him to the Roman Curia, he was Bishop of Avila from 1992 to 1996, then Archbishop of Granada until 2002, and finally Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain until 2008. As such, he was called the "Blade of Toledo" because of his clear language.

The political left is crying out for an investigation into the Archbishop of Valencia, whose "crime" is to open the gates of a church on 10 May and to have blessed his episcopal See with a merciful image of Our Lady at the threshold.

Hue and cry was made that the Cardinal, called "the little Ratzinger" in his Roman time, had violated the Corona emergency measures imposed by the Socialist government.

The Archbishop's office replied that there had been no injury. Nevertheless, the Archbishop was reported and an investigation was launched by the city government.

Every second Sunday in May, it is a tradition in Valencia to celebrate the feast of the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats, according to the Catalan title under which Our Lady is invoked. In Spanish, the Virgen de los desamparados is  Our Lady of the Abandoned in English. She is the Patroness of the city.

The Cardinal with the festively dressed image of Our Lady on May 10, 2020

The year 1409

This devotion and feast date back to 24 February 1409, when the priest Joan Gilabert Jofré, a Mercedarian, saw children on their way to the cathedral mocking and tormenting a homeless mentally ill man. Father Jofré, who had been ordained a priest in 1375, had spent his life following the charism of his order, with efforts to buy Christians out of Islamic slavery. When he returned to Valencia, he saw another need. He recognized the double need for protection of the man who was harassed by the children. In his homily in the cathedral, he denounced the gratuitous, irrational and cruel persecution of vulnerable, innocent mentally ill people and decided to form a brotherhood to serve people like the man whom the children had mocked as "El loco" before his eyes.

In 2010, the Brotherhood celebrated its 600th anniversary

With his Society, founded in 1410, the Lloable Confraria de la Verge Maria dels Innocents, the "Blessed Society of the Virgin Mary of the Innocents", he established the world's first institution for people with mental illnesses and placed it under the special protection of Our Lady in 1414.

Father Jofré and members of the Society, which consisted equally of women and men, along with some priests, erected a chapel in the hospice in honour of Our Lady of the Abandoned. When the chapel was completed, according to tradition, three young men in pilgrim clothes came and offered to create a picture of Our Lady within three days, if they were given a room for it that no one was allowed to enter. This happened, but there was no noise from the room. When nothing happened on the fourth day, the brothers opened the door and found in it the honored image of Our Lady, at whose feet two innocent children can be seen. But the young pilgrims had disappeared. Then the blind and paralyzed wife of the fraternity member who lived in the hospital and had taken her in, was healed. The image of Our Lady with which Cardinal Canizares blessed the city, is therefore said to be el feren el àngels, it was "made by the angels".

Soon the Society also took care of street children, then also homeless sailors and prostitutes. The Fraternity institution became a model for similar foundations, the first of which was established in the Iberian Peninsula in 1438 in Barcelona and in Spanish America, in Mexico City in 1567. In Valencia, Father Jofré's hospital became the city's general hospital.

In 1489, the image of Our Lady was transferred to the city's cathedral. In 1652, the construction of his own basilica in his honour, which was consecrated in 1667, was established directly adjacent to it. The Basilica of mare de Déu dels Desemparats, a collegiate monastery, is connected to the Cathedral of Valencia by a bridge. In 1923, the image of grace was crowned in the presence of King Alfonso XIII and the Apostolic Nuncio on behalf of Pope Pius XI. In the unofficial anthem of the city, the Mother of God of the Abandoned is sung.

The Basilica of the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats, built for the image of Our Lady

The Rage of the Socialists

On the second Sunday in May, on her feast, a procession from the basilica to the cathedral, a distance of 200 meters, traditionally takes place with the great participation of the people. Because of the coronavirus, it had to be cancelled this year. Cardinal Canizares therefore celebrated the Mass behind closed doors, but at the end of the celebration he stood with the image of Our Lady at the threshold of the basilica and blessed the city, while a canon sang the national anthem of the Autonomous Community of Valencia.

That was enough to turn the left-wing city government against him. It launched an investigation to determine whether the cardinal had violated the Corona regulations. Video footage of the event shows that the cardinal did not leave the basilica with the image of Our Lady. Meanwhile, rumors were spread in the city, which could be refuted by the archdiocese thanks to the direct video transmission. But it was of no use. The Socialist City Councillor Aamen Cano (PSOE), responsible for civil protection [Public Safety?], accused the Cardinal of "fraud" because he had blessed the city, even though he had no "permission" to do so. The Cardinal had acted "irresponsibly" by opening the basilica. This was particularly serious because he acted "with intent and treason."

On the instructions of the city government, the basilica was closed by the city police.

The Cardinal's Opinion

Cardinal Canizares responded with clear words. In a statement, he asked the city council:

"Why are you lying and complaining?"

What law or provision prohibits opening the door of a church?

"In all clarity, truth and firmness, and with the freedom that you seem to want to restrict and suppress, I am sorry to tell you that you are lying without mitigating reasons, while at the same time informing you that legality has been faithfully respected and strictly kept by the Church."

The Cardinal informed the city council and its comrades:

"If you had been in the basilica [what Cano would have been able to do as a city councillor] or if you had watched the broadcast of the Mass on television, you would know what happened and what I said."

And further:

"For my part, you are forgiven, and I am sure that the Virgin will forgive you too, because you did not know what you had done on this occasion, and I ask the Valencians, most of whom are not with you, to forgive you and to ignore your words and gestures. The damage you wanted to do has been done against you, even if in some media the damage and slander persists and the lie is spread: this does not contribute to the common good, which has to be the basis for every policy and everyone in politics. This creates damage and hatred."

And even more clearly:

"I note that Marxist ideology is still at large: lies are a political weapon based on the motto: the worse, the better."

And a serious reminder:

"Do not forget that in the countries of our region and in almost all the countries of the world, an inalienable fundamental right is recognised, which is also guaranteed by our Spanish Constitution: the right to religious freedom, which you seem to disregard because you want to dictate what you can and cannot do in a church. Think about it and learn to respect this inalienable and inviolable right."

Das Year 1936

For those who do not know what happened in Spain in 1936, a brief review: on September 14 of that year, Pope Pius XI received 500 Spanish refugees who had to leave their homeland because of the persecution of the Church by the Popular Front. The Pope expressed his sorrow at the persecution and his admiration for the persecuted and the mistreated, especially for those Catholics who had suffered martyrdom.

Manuel de Irujo, Christian Democrat, Basque nationalist, 1937 Minister of Justice of the People's Front

In order not to let the opposite side of General Franco, who is still hated by the political left today, be quoted as Manuel de Irujo (1891–1981), a Catholic from Navarre, representative of the Basque National Party, who was Minister of Justice of the Republican People's Front government in 1937. On 7 January 1937, in Valencia, because of the struggles at that time in the capital of Republican Spain, he presented a memoir:

"The de facto situation of the Church throughout the pro-government area, with the exception of the Basque Country, is as follows:

– All altars, paintings and cult objects were destroyed with a few exceptions, most in a vile way.

– All churches have been closed for the cult, which is totally and absolutely reviled.

The majority of the churches of Catalonia were set on fire, as if it were a normal thing.

– The institutions and the official organs of the state have confiscated bells, chalices, ciboria, candelabra and other cult objects, and material has been extracted from their melting for war or industrial purposes. 

All monasteries were evacuated and the religious life in them was eliminated. The buildings, the cult objects and goods were looted, burned, occupied or demolished.

The priests and religious were arrested, imprisoned and executed, thousands of them without trial. These are facts that continue to happen today, not only in rural areas where they were hunted and brutally killed, but also in cities. Hundreds of arrests have been made in Madrid, Barcelona and the other major cities for no reason other than being priests or religious.

– An absolute ban was imposed on the private expression of religious representations and cult objects. The police carry out house searches, turn apartments upside down and dig into intimate, personal and family life, destroy statues, pictures, religious writings and everything associated with or reminiscent of the cult with ridicule and violence."

Call against Pedro Sanchez's left-wing government: "No to oppression. No to dictatorship"

Meanwhile, "freedom, freedom" calls are making protests against the government's radical measures, the restriction of fundamental rights, the persecution of the people, and the impression of remote control by the vaccination cartel around Bill Gates. The media in Central Europe do not report on this. In Spain, there is concern that parts of the political left are once again dreaming of dictatorship and the persecution of the Church.

A video of the protests against the government's radical measures:

Text: Giuseppe
Nardi Picture: MiL/Wikicommons/Youtube/Twitter (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG