A change was announced to the office of the Prior of Benedictine monastery at the celebrated Spanish national mausoleum in Madrid, known as the Fallen Valley. So far, this function has been exercised by O. Santiago Canter, who gained large assurance and gratitude by patriots due to opposition against deserved exhumations that the leftist government initiated in the name of imposing its historical narrative. Resignation seems formally flawless. However, immense controversy arose over reports that the defender of the Valley of the Deceased had in fact to leave due to the compromise of the government of Pedro Sanchez with the authorities of the Spanish Church. The aim of the agreement is to extinguish the conflict around the resting place of the victims and heroes of the civilian War and build a compromise on the change of character.
Benedictine monastery in Madrid in the Valley of the Dead is simply a place where religion and politics inevitably converge. The home of the assembly and basilica which the monks care for are at the same time the mausoleum, in which the victims of the Spanish civilian War were buried, but besides the leading leaders of the fight against the anti-Catholic Republic. Francisco Franco himself, or Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the creator of the Spanish “Falanga” – socially influential and militarily syndicated, nationalist and Catholic formation.
For decades Spanish socialists have imposed the implementation of their historical policy across the state. According to the democratic memory laws passed by them, all forms of commemoration of victorious opposition against communism in the 1930s are removed and combated. A akin conflict for past affects the Valley of the Deceased. A akin conflict for past affects the Valley of the Deceased. From a monumental mausoleum the efforts of the government were exhumed both the remains of General Franco and the creator of the Falangist movement.
The Spanish patriotic and conservative Catholic communities each time powerfully opposed akin actions, seeing them attack the heroes of the crusade against the ungodly and tyrannical communism. The erstwhile Prior of the monastery in the Valley of the Deceased O. Santiago Canter tried to counteract these efforts. According to infovatican.com, it was thanks to the clergyman that the desecrated dead were avoided while moving their burial site. The clergyman was so seen by the rulers as a serious obstacle to the implementation of planned changes to the national mausoleum, which would deprive this place of affiliation with the victorious organization in the Home War.
Meanwhile, a long - time prior has just said goodbye to his function. According to formal information, he was removed from office by the decision of the Abbot of the Solesmen Congregation – the network of Benedictine monasteries to which he belongs and the 1 located in the Valley of the Deceased – O. Geoffroy Kemlin. The appeal was justified, as the infocatolica.com portal stated, by the fact that O. Canter had already been elected to office 3 times. According to the statutes of the Congregation, he was so not entitled to become an abbot erstwhile again.
But not all of them believed this explanation. It is actual that already in fresh months, the congregation has begun to prepare itself under the supervision of Abbot Kemlin for changes in the “review process” of the situation and the future of the lower community. Cantera's father's appeal is to be the consequence and culmination of this undertaking.
In doing so, any media see the Abbot of the Solesmen Congregation as implementing the guidelines flowing from above, as part of a compromise between ecclesiastical authority and socialists, as regards the transformation of the Valley of the Deceased as the government intended. According to europapress.es and infovaticana.com, O. Geoffrey Kemlin was to participate in a series of consultations between the Spanish Episcopate and the delegate Pedro Sanchez, which established the principles of dialog and agreement.
In discussions with the emissary of left-wing authorities, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Luis Argüello, Cardinal of Madrid Jose Cobo Cano, and papal nuncio, was to attend.
The infovaticana.com website informed that it confirmed the reports of negotiations aimed at concluding an agreement between the Church and the government on changes in the mausoleum and argued that in this case the resignation of the prior should be understood as preparation for the implementation of the project. This fact was commented on in this average in an highly harsh way.
In December 2024, Cardinal Jose Cobo in an interview with europapress.es explained that in the face of the socialists' desire to introduce changes in the Valley of the Deceased The church is open to negotiations, but demands any guarantees – to preserve the sacral character of the basilica and to leave Benedictine Assembly at the site.
Sources: europapress.es, infovaticana.com, infocatolica.com
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