Municipality prevents commemoration prayer in cemetery

Case information
Incident date
Country
Spain
Place
Montcada
Categories
  • Government Restrictions
Attack Against
  • Faith
Societal Sphere
  • Governmental
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Other (text field)
  • Exclusion (of individuals or ideas)
  • Freedom of Association and Assembly
  • Freedom of Religion
Place of Incident
  • Cemetery
Bias Indicators
  • Comments/Written Statements/Gestures/Graffiti
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
  • Time/Place/Location
  • Victim/Witness Perception
Image credit: infocatolica.com

The City Council of Moncada, near Barcelona, has prevented a religious act in memory of the "Carlists of Valls" from being celebrated in the cemetery. The congregation had to hold the memorial act outside of the cemetery wall, thus breaking a mass tradition that has been celebrated for almost a century.

A van and a municipal police car drove to the site to block the entrance to the cemetery. The city council argued that the cemetery chapel, the chairs for the Holy Mass and the table that serves as an altar are their property and cannot be lent for a "political act". The officers also refused to allow the Stations of the Cross to be prayed inside the cemetery because "it is a space that belongs to the Town Hall". They also asked the priest to identify himself.

Consequently, the prayer of the Stations of the Cross was held outside the cemetery walls. "They have not managed to prevent us from remembering this year Tomás Caylà Grau, president of Catalan Carlism in 1936, and the 27 Carlists of Valls, all of them vilely assassinated", explains the Governing Board of the Traditionalist Carlist Communion in a communiqué.

Sources