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Pilgrims asked to kiss a tradition good-bye

30 Aug 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Purification rituals of all sorts were part of daily life for many Jews in Jesus' time, we see in this Sunday's gospel. Pilgrims visiting Santiago de Compostela, Spain, one of the world's most popular religious shrines, are being asked not to follow the traditional practice of kissing the statue of Saint James in an effort to stem Spain's fast-spreading cases of swine flu. Even holy water had been removed from the shrine area in an effort to curb the disease. The cathedral's dean, Jose Maria Diaz, said Friday the campaign was being handled discreetly. "We have not put up any signs or anything," he said. Rather, an usher stationed next to the statue quietly passes the message on. "They are asked at least to refrain from kissing it," Diaz said. He said the measure stems from a new health ministry campaign offering hygiene hints on how to curb the spread of swine flu, one of which is to discourage Spaniards' deeply ingrained custom of greeting one another with kisses, one on each cheek, even when meeting strangers. Spaniards are now being encouraged to shake hands instead. Health minister Trinidad Jimenez goofed the day after announcing the drive this month, however, receiving a colleague with two kisses prior to a meeting on swine flu. Swine flu has killed 12 people in Spain and is spreading so fast the government has stopped trying to count the number of confirmed cases, shifting instead to a weekly estimate. By that measure it says Spain is seeing more than 10,000 cases new cases of swine flu per week. Source: An article by Daniel Woolls for Associated Press

swine flu h1n1 pilgrims santiago de compostela spain shrines jose maria diaz kissing trinidad jimenez

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Et tu, Franco?

27 Jun 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Letter to the Galatians this Sunday reminds us that the law is fulfilled in the directive to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Spanish dictator general Francisco Franco apparently saw things differently. Contrary to reports that he sheltered Jews from the Nazis, recently uncovered archives show he ordered the creation of a list of some 6,000 Jews living in Spain for the Nazis. The list was turned over to German S.S. leader Henrich Himmler as the two countries negotiated Spain’s possible incorporation into the group of Axis powers that included Italy, according to an investigation by the Spanish newspaper El País. The newspaper printed the original order, recently unearthed from Spanish archives, that instructed provincial governors to draw up lists of “all the national and foreign Jews living in the province . . . showing their personal and political leanings, means of living, commercial activities, degree of danger, and security category.” Provincial governors were ordered to look out especially for Sephardic Jews, descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492, because their Ladino language and Hispanic background helped them fit into Spanish society. “Their adaptation to our environment and their similar temperament allow them to hide their origins more easily,” said the order, sent out in May, 1941. Spaniards have long argued over Franco’s attitude toward Jews, which appeared to vary according to what was most useful to his foreign policy. With Hitler and Benito Mussolini defeated and the allies under pressure to oust Franco, his regime tried to cover the tracks of its collaboration with Hitler and rewrite the history of its policy towards Jews, says the newspaper. Most of the Jewish register was destroyed. Copies of some parts of it, however, remained in the provincial governors’ offices and these have since been found in archives. Source: An article by Giles Tremlett for Guardian.co.uk

holocaust jews spain francisco franco

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Spanish court indicts Salvadorans

12 Jun 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Until the Spirit emboldened them at Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples huddled in an upper room in fear for their lives. Two decades ago, six Jesuit priests in war-torn El Salvador who spoke out fearlessly for justice had their compound broken into while they slept and were brutally murdered along with their housekeeper and her daughter. Now Spain's National Court has invoked a special law to order the arrest and trial of 20 former Salvadoran military officers for the murders. Five of the six Jesuits were naturalized Salvadorans of Spanish birth. In announcing the charges, the Spanish court cited its universal jurisdiction law, which says that some crimes are so grave they can be tried anywhere. In the indictment, Judge Eloy Velasco Nuñez said El Salvador's judicial mechanism "was a defective and widely criticized process that ended with two forced convictions and acquittals even of confessed killers." Among those indicted were a former Salvadoran defense minister. A 1993 United Nations Truth Commission report said high-ranking Salvadoran military officials were responsible for ordering the murders and their cover-up. The six priests and two women were murdered Nov. 16, 1989 at their residence on the campus of Central American University in San Salvador. The U.N. report concluded that units of the U.S.-trained Atlacatl battalion forced their way into the Jesuits' residence, ordered them into a garden, shot them, and did away with witnesses such as the housekeeper and her daughter. In San Salvador rights groups hailed the move as an important step towards justice. The judge's decision "gives us encouragement to continue the fight against impunity," said Miguel Montenegro, director of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador. Shortly before he was killed, one of the slain Jesuits, Ignacio Martin Baro, spoke to CNN about the chilling effect of the long-running Salvadoran civil war. "We have become used to violence," said. "We have become used to living in a very dangerous world. We have learned to live, accepting death, extraordinary abnormal death, into our lives." Sources: Articles by Catholic News Service, Agence France Presse, and Al Goodman for CNN

spain el salvador jesuits ignacio martin baro eloy velasco nuñez miguel montenegro murders

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The pain in Spain prompts EU rescue package

17 Jun 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

It is the purpose of the Lord, we hear in this Sunday’s first reading, to “make the withered tree bloom.” Eurozone finance ministers rushed Spain into an E.U.-funded bank rescue package in hopes it will help the withered Spanish economy bloom anew. But forecasters predict the country will have to weather some bitter harvests in coming years.Spain becomes the fourth—and largest—of the 17 countries that use Europe’s common currency to request a bailout, a big blow to a nation that a few years ago took pride as the continent’s economic superstar, only to become the latest hot spot in the eurozone debt crisis.The amount of the rescue fund, if all of it is tapped, amounts to about $25,000 of new debt for each person in the nation of 47 million, where the average annual salary for those with work is also about $25,000 and the unemployment rate for those under age 25 is 52 percent.The country is already reeling from deep austerity cuts imposed over the last six months that have raised taxes, made it easier to hire and fire workers, and cut deeply into cherished government programs such as education and national health care. “This year is going to be a bad one,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday in his first comments about the rescue. Sources: Articles by Raphael Minder for the New York Times and Alan Clendenning,Harold Heckle, and Jorge Sainz for the Associated Press

bailout spain eurozone mariano rajoy

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Tragedy strikes near Spanish pilgrimage site

28 Jul 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Believers are “buried” with the Lord in baptism, the second reading informs us, but faith in the power of God also raises up the believer. In the region of Galicia in northwestern Spain, the loved ones of those who died in a horrific train derailment are beginning to bury their dead on the eve of a major religious festival.At least 80 people were killed and scores injured when a train derailed on the outskirts of the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela in one of Europe's worst rail disasters. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the 13 overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage.The government said it was working on the hypothesis the derailment was an accident—although some nearby residents claimed they heard an explosion—and the scene stirs memories of 2004's Madrid train bombing, carried out by Islamist extremists, which killed 191 people.The train derailed just before the ancient city's main festival in honor of Saint James the apostle when thousands of Christian pilgrims from all over the world would pack the streets. This year, however, Galicia Day celebrations have been cancelled, local media report.The disaster happened when Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by government-driven austerity to bring its finances into order. Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts, worked overtime to tend the injured.Homily hint: Faith may be shaken by a tragic event occurring on the eve of a religious festival at one of Christendom’s most revered spots—Santiago de Compostela, the end point of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route which originated in the 9th century. Prayers go out for those who perished, their loved ones, and all the pilgrims gathered in the city. Sources: Articles by George Mills for The Local (Spain), Miguel Vidal for Reuters, and Tom Burridge for BBC News

santiago de compostela spain train accidents derailments

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