Madrid, Spain, Jul 12, 2007 / 09:17 am
Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellin of Burgos said this week the group of martyrs of the Spanish Civil War that will soon be beatified “do not belong to any political group” and that viewing their deaths through a political spectrum not only amounts to “profound historical distortion but also serious intellectual error.”
The beatifications of 428 martyrs, which will take place on October 28 in Rome, are not about politics, he said, but rather about “love, forgiveness and full reconciliation. This is their message and this is the great lesson for the Church of today and of all times,” the archbishop said.
He stressed that the new blessed are “an example and motivation for us all…to be faithful at a time in which secularism and materialism have taken center stage in order to make us falter in our following of Jesus Christ.”
The new blessed show that the modern world is not moved solely by the desire for power, money and pleasure, and they confirm that there are “many people who are moved by love and forgiveness.”
Archbishop Gil encouraged priests and religious in the diocese to make the lives of the new blessed known to the faithful and to encourage them to participate more fully in the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.
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