“Is the inviolability of places of worship a dead letter?”the National Francisco Franco Foundation (FNFF) asks about the Government’s plans to desecrate the Cuelgamuros Valley. After asking for help from the apostolic nuncio in Spain, Bernardito Auza, the FNFF now calls for the mediation of the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo Cano, to whom it has sent a letter explaining its reasons and arguments in favour of preserving the essence of the monumental complex, a recurring target of the left in recent years.
The Association for the Defense of the Valley of the Fallen (ADVC) has had the same objective for some time, and shares with the entity the request for the Guadarrama mountain range enclosure to be declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), a label that could prevent the deterioration of the facilities, prey to leaks and a general lack of maintenance that especially affects the stone carvings of John of Avalosas reported in these pages by Juan de Ávalos Carballo, son of the renowned sculptor. A request that National Heritage delegates to the Community of Madrid, although Sol claims not to have the authority to execute such a measure.
The Franco Foundation recalls the words of Cardinal Cobo a year ago, when he defended “the inviolability” of the temple, because it was built as such, and about the same safeguard that corresponds to the Benedictine community “who is praying there” and “who prays for peace” in the context of a “life of prayer.”
The archbishop also appealed to “the proper jurisdictions of the Benedictines and the agreements between the Church and the State”.
The FNFF maintains that “what is intended to be accomplished from a legal point of view cannot be done in the Valley of the Fallen.” In this regard, it invokes Article 96 of the Spanish Constitution: “International treaties validly concluded, once officially published in Spain, will form part of the internal legal system. Its provisions may only be repealed, modified or suspended in the manner provided for in the treaties themselves. or in accordance with the general rules of international law” – and Law 25/2014, of November 27, on International Treaties: “All public powers, organs and agencies of the State must respect the obligations of the international treaties in force in which Spain is a party and ensure proper compliance with said treaties.”
The entity also relies on Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on Internal Law and the Observance of Treaties: “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for failure to perform a treaty.”
With the now public document, the Foundation intends to remind that “It is the bishops who are actively legitimized in the defense of the temple, the Benedictine community, the boys of the school/choir school” and of “all the faithful who urge its defense.” Without forgetting, its leaders point out, that “we cannot allow the Popes Pius XII and Saint John XXIII to be disavowed with their future “letters” in which they do disavow and nullify any attack on the Valley of the Fallen…”
The FNFF highlights the “great movement of people, of all kinds, who have come out in defense of the Valley of the Fallen, both in Spain and abroad,” a movement that began when the Government announced that it wanted to “resignify” and convert «in the civil cemetery the Valley of the Fallen and open and private letters are sent», both to the nuncio and to the Episcopal Conference, “letters that have put Spanish and foreign Catholics on alert who have positioned themselves” in favor of protecting the complex.
They also affirm that “we will not stop until we see the Valley of the Fallen and its Benedictine community free of all danger,” and “We have already given some examples of how to defend it for its future importance above the whim of some.”
Its aim is to “give hope to all the faithful, since in prurity of doctrine, the Valley cannot be touched.” “There are many faithful who ask what they can do to defend the Valley,” the FNFF insists.
In the same letter, “everyone is encouraged to go to the Valley of the Fallen, which is a marvel,” with the intention that “enjoy your magnificent masses” and know that “there is a bar and a restaurant” (in the inn, since the restaurant and the funicular have been closed for years, while the base of the cross is inaccessible due to the usual rock falls).
This is the second communication to the ecclesiastical hierarchy by the Franco Foundation. The day after the inter-ministerial commission was established that will have to undertake the changes foreseen by the Law of Democratic Memory in the Cuelgamuros Valley, the entity addressed the apostolic nuncio in Spain, Bernardito Auza. “It is beyond human understanding that blessed, martyred servants and relatives of those buried there (apart from that tiny number of those who want to exhume their dead from there) may be buried outside of a sacred place,” he denounced.
He also pointed out how “Blessed John XXIII elevated the Church of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen to the honor and dignity of a minor basilica on April 7, 1960,” so that “The Valley of the Fallen being what it is, it is unthinkable that it would be ‘resignified’ and become something else”And already at that time, the Franco Foundation – threatened with extinction by the Government – placed emphasis on the “agreements between the Spanish State and the Holy See” and the “inviolable” nature of a place of worship.