A few days ago, a lady was arrested and handcuffed for praying the rosary in the street; it was in Ferraz street, near the headquarters of the Socialist Party. The scene, broadcast on the social networks, is very illustrative and perfectly describes the desperation, but also the character, of a government that seems to me to be in a labyrinth, in a state of confusion, from which it doesn’t quite know how to get out.
The arrest scene shows two very different sides: on the one hand, the shameful behaviour of the policeman, arresting and handcuffing (was this really necessary?) the woman, no doubt following instructions from his superiors, the government delegate, who in turn received them from the Minister of the Interior and, of course, under orders from the President of the Government.
The other side of the scene is played by the lady who, with all dignity and serenity, allows herself to be led without putting up any resistance: a symbol of what prayer, and particularly the rosary, means for us Catholics.
I would like to go more deeply into the significance of each of these facets.
The actions of the police, repressing these peaceful demonstrations, highlight the “absurdity” of the government we are suffering, which, while using force to intimidate peaceful demonstrators, wants to grant amnesty to the violent people who, in Catalonia, burnt containers, blocked roads, stormed the airport and made coexistence impossible.
A government without criteria, incapable of governing – devoting all its energies to staying in power – caught up in a spiral of promises that are impossible to keep in a democratic country. A government, in short, presided over by a person who has lost all credibility both inside and outside Spain and who, if this is not remedied, is going to lead us to a dictatorship worthy of the Sao Paulo Forum.
The lady who, for praying the rosary, is arrested and handcuffed, fills us with hope and shows us the way. A path that continues to be travelled every day with several hundred people, including many young people, who gather in the same place to do the same thing: pray the rosary. I am convinced that this wave will not stop.
This obsession with persecuting Catholics is not new.
Since the beginning of the Contemporary Age, with the French Revolution, Catholics have been marginalised, confined to the sacristies and even eliminated. We have an example of this already at the time of the Revolution with the episode of La Vendée, the first martyrology of our age, hidden and therefore unknown to the majority of French people.
Almost a century and a half later, following the same patterns as in the French Revolution, in Mexico, with the Cristiada, thousands of Catholics also died for defending their faith by shouting ¡Long live Christ the King!! Another piece of erased history that Mexicans know little about.
In Spain, a few years later, a persecution was unleashed along the same lines, also bloody, against Catholics, simply because they were Catholics. An episode that this government is trying to erase from memory, what a coincidence!
A few days ago, the feast of these martyrs was celebrated.
This legacy that our ancestors left us with their example and their dedication should serve to keep us going. Their blood was not shed in vain.
But why this obsession against Catholics?
Because we are the only ones, with other Christians, who defend the equality of all people in their dignity, their freedom, their rights: the right to life, from conception to the end of life, the right to participate in public life, the right to the common good that allows all people to develop according to their own life plan, whatever it may be; we propose a solidarity based on love, truth, justice and freedom. In short, we propose a society of free men, with their own criteria and unmanageable by ideologies.
Of course, all this clashes head-on with the interests of governments, not only in Spain, but also with the interests of almost every country in the world, which try to impose a single way of thinking and create a denatured and submissive humanity.
That is why the prayer of the rosary at the doors of abortion clinics and now in Ferraz street, hurts them and they forbid it. Praying the rosary is not only a protest against the amnesty law that breaks with the equality of people and makes crimes unpunished, that puts an end to the rule of law and, therefore, to the common good; it is also a proposal to make this world more humane, more fraternal, more supportive, with a solidarity based on love.
This movement must not cease, prayer is our most powerful weapon and its fruits will undoubtedly be seen.
Javier Espinosa Martinez, collaborator and partner of Enraizados
