Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid celebrated a Mass on November 9 in honor of Our Lady of Almudena, the patroness of Spain’s capital, in the Plaza Mayor where he took occasion to emphasize again “the inviolable dignity of every human being,” while also asserting that “no legal instance in the world can deny or limit his right to life.” He said the pitiless demand to abort unborn children even in the last months of gestation is a crime that “cries out to heaven.” The Mass began at 11 AM. Among those attending was Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruíz-Gallardón, who renewed the vows of the people of the city to the Virgin. Following the Mass, those attending accompanied the image of Our Lady of Almudena through the streets of Madrid and to the Cathedral.
In his homily, Cardinal Rouco spoke about the “reality” of the Virgin who “causes all people of Madrid to recognize her Son as their only Saviour, with the ethical consequence that to all people, however insignificant, tiny, sick, weak, or unfortunate they may be, deserves unconditional personal and communal respect.” “No one may treat him like an object,” added the cardinal. He also spoke of the “Christian history of Madrid” while admitting that the now current “disbelief” is fundament of thinking for many people. He said this disbelief presents itself as a rejection of the Church and also as a “radical negation” of the existence of God; however, the cardinal gave assurances that end of Christian Madrid has not yet come.
The cardinal warned young people against distractions that cause young people to “conform their lives, through an alliance of powerful societal, media, cultural and legal means that is a materialist program for personal life, social relationships and projects for the future, that are marked by what the Servant of God John Paul II did not refrain from calling the culture of death.”
For his part, Mayor Ruíz-Gallardón prayed to the Virgin, “Help us so that the anguish and confusion of those who have been lost in the dark paths of hatred should become exhausted by their failure of reason and not make us prisoners of it” as he renewed the vows of Madrid’s people. He also asked that his fellow citizens may live in a “new age of serenity, equally free of anxiety about the future or nostalgia for the past.”
Other politicians attended the Mass and ceremonies, while the float bearing the 400 year-old image of the Virgen bearing the Christ Child in her arms was accompanied by an honor guard of mounted police officers and a band.
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