Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 8, 2023 / 14:30 pm
Growing numbers of Catholics continue to defy Spain’s socialist government by publicly praying the rosary for the country as it faces spiritual, political, and economic turbulence that a pro-life lawyer says stems from a crisis in values and clear persecution against the Catholic Church.
CNA recently interviewed Polonia Castellanos, a prominent attorney who has recently defended Catholics arrested for praying the rosary outside a Madrid church. Christian Lawyers of Spain (AbogadosCristianos.es), founded by Castellanos, has filed a complaint against Madrid’s municipal government alleging that it had abused its authority by sending police to stop public prayer outside Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.
The nonprofit legal team asserted that the city government “has no authority to limit a fundamental right, which is the right to religious liberty.” Castellanos told CNA: “This government has begun an authentic persecution of Christians. They will not deter us. This government sends peaceful people to prison for simply praying while annulling all kinds of criminal convictions for its partners.”
Rosary rallies in the country have coincided with large-scale protests against an amnesty law that the government offered to socialists and communists for the failed 2017 bid by Catalonia to secede from the rest of Spain.