Bishop remembers martyrs of Spanish Civil War

Cordoba, Spain, Nov 4, 2011 / 11:57 am

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba, Spain has announced that the Church in Spain will remember the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War on Nov. 6.

Bishop Cordoba recalled that this year marks the “75th anniversary of the cruel martyrdom of thousands and thousands of Spaniards who gave their lives for Jesus Christ, openly confessing their faith and sealing it with their blood,” reports Europa Press.
 
“There is no greater love. Around a thousand have already been beatified and thousands more are in the process of being declared martyrs of Christ. In each case the Church carries out a thorough examination of their deaths, the motives for their deaths and how they confronted this supreme moment,” he said.
 
“The martyrs are not those who fall on the battle front in the line of fire, but rather those who were taken from their homes, arrested, taken to prison and executed simply for being Christians,” the bishop explained. “They were executed out of hatred for the faith.”

He noted that the hatred of God and Catholicism “becomes the occasion to express a greater love, a love that dies forgiving one’s executioners, a love that dies singing what is most beautiful in the human heart. Once again, hatred does not have the last word.  The last word belongs to love, because God is love,” he stated.
 
Bishop Fernandez explained that the Church “does not celebrate the cruelty of torture” but rather the “greater love that each one of her children was able to express.”