Anarchists Attack Cathedral in Chile on the Patronal Feast: Mayor Leads Catholics to Defend it Against Them!

Edit: the coverage from the media was poor on this.

(Santiago de Chile) While Pope Francis met with young people from around the world last night at the Copacabana, the Cathedral Santiago de Chile, was profaned (On his feast, the 25th of July.). The sacrilege took place during the celebration of the Holy Mass by the Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello in honor of St. James the Great, who celebrated the eponymous saint of the Chilean capital.

The 300 participants were anti-clericals from the march against life taking place just then, which was organized by supporters of abortion in Chile's capital. They demand a "right" to be able to kill unborn children. The violent abortion advocates destroyed confessionals, threw pews around, shouted blasphemies, insulted Christians and smeared hate slogans on the walls of the church and its altars, with an almost unsurpassable contempt, "such as if the graves, and the pillars of the cathedral were some minor concrete wall of a railway bridge or an industrial zone underpass" as Matteo Matzuzzi of Il Foglio wrote.

Numerous Mass attendees, among whom was the mayor of Santiago, Tohá Carolina, responded vigorously to the initial shock and drove the attackers out of the way. They formed a human wall around the presbytery and prevented the attackers from entering to the main altar.

The faithful finally succeeded along with the security of the Cathedral to pressure the abortionists out of the cathedral. In front of the bishop's church, the police broke up the demonstration and meanwhile made a number of arrests.

In Chile, there is already campaigning for the presidential elections in the fall. The political left has inscribed their banners with slogans for the legalization of abortion and "gay marriage". The spokesman for the Stalinist [Compared to the DDR of old in Germany], Socialist candidate and current UN Under-Secretary General and UN Women's President, Michelle Bachelet, was already Chilean President from 2006-2010.

The desecration of the cathedral of Chile has shocked Catholics. "But the perpetrators, heralds of death, blasphemers and vandals of the church allowed this because they are Democrats, they are social, for a just world, against this and against that ..." as a Catholic Chilean blogger commented on the raid.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Images: ACIprensa
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Link to katholisches...

Spain: Record for Pilgrimage of St. James

The Holy Year of James in Santiago de Compstela has come to an end -- Correspondent's Report by Manuel Meyer

St. James in Battle

Santiago de Compostela (www.kath.net/ KAP)  With a historic record number of pilgrims, the "Holy Year of James" is at an end this Friday in the northern Spanish pilgrimage destination of Santiago de Compostela.  "It is almost inconceivable, but we have registered a total number of 271.93", said the director of the Office of Pilgrimage in Santiago, Jenaro Cebrian, says Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur  (KNA)  In his "wildest dreams" it was at the most 240.000... in any case, he had prepared his office well and had even ordered ten temporary employees; but still no one could have figured on such a massive surge in numbers, said the director of the Pilgrimage Office.

Especially chaotic were the busiest Months of July and August. "In July we had 40.000 and in August   60.000 registered pilgrims -- we've never had so many before."  The number of pilgrims has been climbing continuously in the past years.  In the "Holy Year of James" in 1993 there were 99.436;  in the last "Xacobeo"  2004 there were another 179.944.

 "The Spanish James Pilgrimmage is today as beloved as never before",  said Ignacio Santos also, General Director of the Xacobeo-Consortium, which is responsible for the organizing of the "Year of St. James".  In order to care for the mass of pilgrims, the Consortium erected ten new hospices on the various St. James Pilgrimage routes through Spain.  In addition there were mobile Pilgrim shelters established along the beloved "French way", so that no pilgrim would have to sleep under the open sky.  Even so there weren't enough sleeping areas.  "I had to walk until five o'clock in the morning, so that I could get to the the next day's destination.  Otherwise I would have not gotten a bed",  said 39 year old Madrilene Cesar Perez, who had taken the "French way" .

For all, the destination is Santiago, to which all eight of the paths go, the place to which all are bound.  In addition, there are more than 2.000 cultural events of the accompanying cultural performances with demonstrations, concerts and other events which in the estimation o fthe media consist of about eight million visiters who have been drawn to the city.  Actually not everyone is pleased by this.   "When you have been walking through nature all week and are looking for reflection, the arrival in Santiago can be almost a shock",  said Cesar Perez.

The Church tried to accomodate the pilgrims with five daily pilgrimage Masses and spiritual conferences.  For this there were not a few pilgrims who would have liked more peace at the end of their jounrey.  Even for Xacobeo-Director Ignacio Santos it was a balancing act between the protection of the religious character of the pilgrimage and its commercial exploitation, whose business element is very important in the financially poor region.

Next to the plenary indulgence for every Pilgrim who goes to the "St. James Year" in Santiago and goes to confession, even the market crisis in Spain plays an enormous role in the climb of the number of pilgrims:  many see the pilgrimage as a suitable alternative to a vacation, says Jenaro Cebrian.

The Pope too admonished the pilgrims on his visit at the beginning of November to Santiago, that the pilgrims do not exhaust their  wonder in seeking out some destination for its natural beauty, artistic treasures or history.  It's more important for a pilgrim to have an encounter with God in a place, which he has shown himself in a particular way.

From the tomb of the Aposgle Benedict XVI. recalled Europe to its "Christian roots".  And even at the beginning of the "Holy Year" he had expressed his hope that as many, who have gone further from believe in God, might come back to him.  And the faithful should be encouraged by the pilgrimage to rethink their Faith and to deepen it.

A "Holy Year" always takes place in Santiago when the previous year the date of the Apostle's death the 25th of July should fall on a Sunday.  That will not take place again until 2021.

Read original... kath.net...

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