OXFORD (CNS) : A community of Benedictine monks has vowed to continue ministering at a Spanish civil war memorial marked by a 460-foot cross despite a bill pending in parliament that would ban expressions of support for the 20th-century dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
The Benedictines have long overseen the site, located in the Valley of the Fallen near Madrid.
The cabinet of Spain’s socialist-led government approved a final draft of the bill, called the Democratic Memory Law, on July 20. The measure would redesignate the valley as a “place of democratic memory” and require the removal of fixtures deemed to extol Franco, who portrayed himself as a fervent Catholic.
“Although this draft law provides for the extinction of our foundation, the text says nothing about our community’s disappearance,” Father Santiago Cantera Montenegro, prior of the Valley of the Fallen, said after the cabinet’s action.
“So we’ll continue our life tranquilly and normally, knowing God and our heavenly mother are watching over us,” he said.
The online Spanish language news site, Religion Digital, reported that Father Cantera told fellow monks in a July 22 letter, that Spanish media had spread “disturbing news” about the bill. He added that he hoped the Benedictine order could continue running its hostel and music school at the site.
Franco’s remains were exhumed from a pontifical basilica at the site and reinterred at a family crypt north of Madrid in October 2019.
Carlos Cardinal Osoro Sierra of Madrid, also criticised the bill.
“We don’t know in detail what the government wants to do in the valley,” the cardinal said in a July 21 tweet. “But we must remember the Church, and particularly the Benedictine community present there, has always stood for reconciliation and for all victims. The cross is a symbol of love and dedication.”
In addition, the Association to Defend the Valley has called on Christians to resist the changes, while more than 56,000 Spaniards also urged Church leaders and the Vatican, in a September 2020 petition, to oppose them as an assault on religious freedom.
The legislation includes provisions to annul Franco-era trials and offer reparation to “victims of fascism.” The Valley of the Fallen would be redesignated a civil cemetery and heritage site under a transitional supervisory board.
However, Father Cantera said in his letter it would take “months, even years” for the law to secure parliamentary enactment and royal assent after constitutional appeals, and urged fellow-monks to “remain serene, keeping peace and trusting in God.”
