• Exhumation: Extreme security measures for Franco's exhumation
  • Protests: Marblers who will raise Franco's slab denounce insults and threats
  • The Government.The Executive on the prior: "We no longer have to ask anyone for permission, it cannot be an obstacle"

The prior of the abbey of the Valley of the Fallen, Santiago Cantera , has warned Pope Francis, the abbot of Solesmes , the Spanish Episcopal Conference and the archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro that "the inviolability" of the Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen as a sacred place, in the framework of the preparations for the exhumation of Francisco Franco, which will take place this Thursday.

Likewise, and in parallel, the prior has filed a complaint with the judge for the "unconscious access" of the Civil Guard troops to the temple. "We want to record that the actions of the Security Forces and the operators have been and are totally incompatible with the principle of inviolability of places of worship and the rights of this Benedictine community; what we have also put in knowledge of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, "the Benedictine community explained in a statement released on Wednesday.

Specifically, the Benedictines have transferred this complaint to the Archbishop of Madrid, to the Spanish Episcopal Conference - chaired by Ricardo Blázquez -, to the Solesmes Abbey and to the Holy See, sources close to the Valle de Abbey have pointed out to Europa Press the fallen.

On Monday, October 21, Prior Cantera filed a complaint with the Court of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid) for "preventing monks' access to the basilica. The Benedictines said in the statement that since October 11, following the agreement of the Council of Ministers that decreed the closure of the enclosure of the Valley of the Fallen, "the Civil Guard, without judicial authorization to allow it, accessed and wandered through dependencies of the abbey and, what is more serious, accessed and wandered through the basilica. "

All this they did, as they denounce, "without any ecclesiastical authorization and occupying it 24 hours a day, thus violating both the right to domiciliary inviolability and the right to religious freedom."

The Benedictines also denounce that since Sunday, October 20, the monks' access to the basilica was prevented despite being, as they say, the "only holders and custodians of the temple." In addition, they state that "chains and locks were placed on the access door between the abbey and the basilica" to block the passage. In this sense, they denounce that it is a "paradox" that third parties may enter.

That said, they warn that "the slightest vigilance" has not been allowed by the Benedictines, who have no "guarantee" that the conduct of these people "did not contravene the sacred character of the temple, ignoring whether they have occurred actions incompatible with worship, piety or religion. "

In addition, they state that "the members of the abbey are prevented from attending the religious response in the act of exhumation," since the Government has only authorized the prior Santiago Cantera to be present.

Thus, they summarize that "the actions produced in the Valley of the Fallen since the end of September, apparently directed by the Government Delegation, have exceeded, and much, the terms of the agreements of the Council of Ministers of February 15 and March 15, 2019 ".

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  • Valley of the Fallen
  • Civil Guard
  • Madrid
  • Francisco Franco Bahamonde
  • Pope Francis I
  • Religion
  • Franco exhumation

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