Josep Miró i Ardèvol – 12/03/2020
On March 8, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, in addition to the demonstrations in Catalonia, a series of assaults were organized against Catholic temples.
The facts are at least these: there were attacks on the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, in the expiatory temple of Tibidabo, as well as in several parishes of Sants, Gràcia and Les Corts.
In this last district, and in the case of the parish of the Virgin of the Remedy, in the place of the Concord, one of the most centric and historical of quarter of Les Corts, the intervention of the Mossos d’Esquadra was necessary so the 12 o’clock mass could be celebrated. These and the faithful themselves prevented the access of the temple to some thirty young people concentrated in the square, who ended up throwing smoke jars at the parish.
During the night, a statement of principle was painted on the floor in front of the entrance to the church: “We will drown you in the blood of our abortions.” The sentence already defines the kind of mentality that presides over these actions.
In Sant Cugat de Vallès, another group of young people interrupted the eucharist that was being held in the parish of the Monastery, and did not give up their aggressive action until the faithful themselves managed to expel them.
In Lleida, in the cathedral square, dolls representing bishops and priests were burned, with banners such as “Fire in the Church, fire in the sexist and patriarchal Bishopric”. The incitement is concrete and clear.
All of these actions have clear authorship, because they have been disclosed on social media by themselves. Arran a youth branch of CUP self-blame for the actions, and in its Manifesto the intentions of those violent actions are clear.
The title says it all: We will be your apocalypse. What the dictionary refers to in hand to “the catastrophic or violent end that implies the disappearance of something, especially the world.” For the sake of doubt, the text declares at the outset: “We attack the Catholic Church because …”, and ends with a “we will not stop until this institution has nothing more to say to women.”
Words alone would already be very serious because they contain explicit incitement to hatred and aggression. But they are also accompanied by concrete acts, from asking for the exercise of religious freedom to the threat of intimidation inside and outside religious spaces. It is the beginning of a violence that cannot be tolerated.
The worst case scenario is the indifference of the media in Catalonia, which have systematically silenced the events. All of them, of course, aggression, have as their authors a political force, the CUP represented in the Parliament of Catalonia and present in various city councils, even in some mayors. It is therefore not a question of uncontrolled and unknown groups, but of a political institution that is part of the plural representation in the institutions of this country, and this makes the act more serious.
If left unattended it sets a precedent that affects Catholics in the first place, of course, but also applies to any group not tolerated by another capable of acting violently.
Catalonia cannot afford this youth orchestrated street vandalism, the seed of potential storms. That is why the citizens and the institutions of our society have to express themselves in terms of rejection and demand so that this can never happen again.
Beyond society, the first responsibility lies with the Government of Catalonia, its President and Parliament, who must speak in clear form to disqualify this sectarian violence and isolate those who support it.
If this is not done, Catalonia will have taken another step towards the conditions that foster civil confrontation.
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