Socialist Takeover: Monk Defending the Valley of the Fallen Forced to Leave

"Many feel the Vatican has let down Father Cantera, a stalwart defender of the civil war memorial’s Basilica." Is anyone surprised?

From The European Conservative

By Javier Villamor

Many feel the Vatican has let down Father Cantera, a stalwart defender of the civil war memorial’s Basilica.

The Spanish socialist government has finally achieved one of its most coveted political objectives: the dismissal of Fray Santiago Cantera from the Valley of the Fallen. Over  the past ten years, Cantera has become a solid line of the legal and spiritual defense of the sacredness and autonomy of the religious site. He has now temporarily left the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross and moved to another monastery at an undisclosed location.

This move comes after intense negotiations between Pedro Sánchez’s government and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, led by the archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo. Although the official version presents Cantera’s removal as an ordinary relocation following the expiry of his mandate,  it looks much more like a political maneuver against Father Cantera who has firmly resisted the government’s attacks ever since the controversial exhumation of Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The Spanish socialist party (PSOE), led by minister Félix Bolaños, has systematically pressured the Church to remove Cantera, perceived as a fundamental obstacle to carrying out the “resignification” of the monument.

According to  InfoVaticana,Cantera’s departure is the result of  a behind-the-scenes agreement between the government and influential sectors of the Spanish Church, with the Vatican’s knowledge and complicit silence. Sources close to the Benedictines describe Cantera’s “removal” as a “temporary parenthesis” necessary to alleviate government pressure and safeguard the continuity of the monastic community in the Valley.

Alfredo Maroto, a monk renowned for his serenity and profound spirituality, will soon replace Cantera. It remains to be seen whether this concession will be sufficient to satisfy the socialists, , or whether, on the contrary, the offensive on the Valley of the Fallen will continue until it reaches its ultimate goal, the definitive desacralization of the monument.

The PSOE campaign has already done a lot of harm by fuelling and abetting anti-Christian sentiments and threats. Some members of left-wing parties, such as the spokesman for Podemos in the Castilla y León parliament, Pablo Fernández, have pledged to  “dynamite and blow up” the cross in the Valley of the Fallen.