APPEAL IN DEFENSE OF THE MONUMENTAL COMPLEX OF THE VALLEY OF THE FALLEN AS A SYMBOL OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR CIVILIZATION AND OF THE BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY

 

To all Christians in the world and to all people of good will:

The history of Christendom is a history of persecutions—from that of Diocletian, to the one our brothers in the Faith are suffering today in many Muslim-majority countries, passing through the French Revolution, the “Cristeros” of Mexico, or—during the 20th century—the persecution of Christians in communist countries.

Spain, the “land of Mary” as St. John Paul II said, has been Christian since the Apostle James arrived on the peninsula in the 1st century A.D. It has always been a vanguard in the defense of Christendom: against the Muslim empire for eight centuries, against the Turks thereafter, and against the numerous heresies of medieval and modern Europe. Moreover, it was the great evangelizer of the world, from the Philippines to Tierra del Fuego. Spain, a seedbed of Martyrs and Saints, cannot be understood without Faith in Christ—just like Europe. And in Spain, less than a century ago, between 1934 and 1939, Christians suffered one of the greatest and bloodiest persecutions in history at the hands of a dark coalition of socialists, communists, and anarchists known as the “Popular Front,” with more than 8,000 religious and several thousand laypeople brutally murdered—killed solely and exclusively for their Faith—along with the looting and destruction of a large part of the places of worship and religious institutions of all kinds. This opened a wound that took the Spanish people a long time to heal, but which, in an admirable act of generosity and reconciliation, was ultimately closed decades ago.

As a symbol of that reconciliation, and as a tribute to all the victims—on either side—who suffered the consequences of those dramatic events, often giving their lives, an impressive monumental complex was completed in 1958 near Madrid: the Valley of the Fallen, “a symbol of unity and brotherhood among all Spaniards.” There, more than 30,000 people who died in the Civil War—victors and vanquished—were given Christian burial. The complex includes a pontifical basilica, an exemplary Benedictine abbey, an important center for the study of the Church’s social doctrine, and the largest Cross in Christendom.

Since its inauguration, the Valley of the Fallen has been more than an immense cemetery or an impressive Catholic temple: above all, it has been a place of memory, of reconciliation, and of reminder of what must never happen again.

From here, we make known to the Christian world that:

The socialist/communist/secessionist government of Spain approved a Democratic Memory Law in October 2022 which, according to its Article 54, seeks to “redefine” the entire complex of the Valley of the Fallen, turning it into a civil cemetery and declaring the Foundation of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen extinguished, claiming that its aims are incompatible with constitutional principles and values.

Thus, through what they call “redefinition,” supported by the official discourse of said Law, the government is promoting a transformation that intends to erase the religious and reconciliatory meaning of the monument in order to impose a sectarian and totalitarian vision of the past, in the same spirit as the Taliban when, in March 2001 in Afghanistan, they ordered the systematic destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

This “redefinition,” if not stopped in time, may ultimately lead to the desired objective of demolishing the Cross—despite the government’s empty denials.

In the face of the powerlessness we Spanish Christians feel in these moments, we issue an APPEAL to all our brothers in Christ, regardless of nationality, throughout the world, that they help us with their prayers and with all the media actions necessary to prevent such a sacrilege from taking place.

We issue this APPEAL from our commitment to the truth that shall make us free; from our commitment to justice, as a higher form of human knowledge; from our commitment to history; and from our commitment to culture, for only ignorance or hatred can lead one to despise culture as the legacy of each and every generation that preceded us. Its disrespect, erasure, or alteration—typical of barbarians—reveals the supreme audacity of doctrinaire Marxist thinking.

We are Christians, men and women of faith, humility, and charity. Let us not allow our millenary civilization—the cradle of human dignity and progress—to be destroyed. LET US MOBILIZE! Let each of us call upon the indifferent, and let us all implore God for His help. Dawn will come, and God expects that we will have fulfilled His command and our duty.

The “redefinition” of the monumental complex of the Valley of the Fallen is not only a barbaric attack on a cultural asset of the highest order: it is an attack on the very foundations upon which Europe was built, and a step backwards of several decades in the defense of freedom.

THE NATIONAL FRANCISCO FRANCO FOUNDATION
ISSUES AN APPEAL AND A PETITION FOR SUPPORT
TO OUR BROTHERS IN THE FAITH
TO PREVENT EVIL FROM TRIUMPHING OVER TRUTH