Cardinal Ricardo Blazquez Perez, who is the Spanish bishops conference president, says he supports re-establishing constitutional order.

Bishops and priests should favour "peaceful coexistence" and "renounce concrete political actions that could diminish their mission which consists in being pastors for all", Perez's spokesman says.

Last month, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government took direct control of Catalonia.

It dismissed its separatist government led by Carles Puigdemont in a bid to block Catalan separatists' efforts to gain independence from Spain.

Catalonia's ousted president and four other regional ministers then fled to Belgium.

The remaining members of the Catalan government are in jail in Spain, charged with rebellion and sedition.

A poll published in El Pais newspaper on Monday showed just a quarter of Catalonia's 7.5 million people want to claim independence from Spain.

In recent years, Josep Maria Soler, who is the Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat in Catalonia, has spoken out in favour of the region's right to hold an independence referendum.

He has not backed secession, however.

Over 400 Catalan priests and deacons signed a manifesto in favour of a banned independence referendum.

The referendum went ahead on 1 October, despite Spain's central government and the courts banning it.

Rajoy's government has complained to the Vatican about the Catalan priests' defiance, Spanish media reports say.

Source

• Bloomberg
• The Local
• Reuters
• Image: InfoVaticana

Sr Teresa Forcades, from the Benedictine monastery of Monserrat near Barcelona, is running in the next Catalan election in September.

The vote has been dubbed a de facto referendum on independence from Spain.

Sr Teresa is the number one candidate on the ballot list of Procés Constituent a Catalunya, a grouping she helped found two years ago.

It calls for the founding of an independent Catalan state with a nationalised banking system and energy sector, no armed forces, no immigration laws, payment for parents who stay at home and on-demand abortion, reported the Sunday Telegraph.

Sr Teresa is awaiting permission from the local bishop for her exclaustration, a period spent outside the convent or monastery which can last up to three years.

The sisters at the monastery have agreed to let her be in politics this time.

She sees independence from Spain as the only way for Catalonia to escape what she describes as "the stifling orthodoxies of today's neoliberal society".

Sr Teresa, described as one of Catalonia's most prominent anti-establishment voices, has a Twitter account with nearly 35,000 followers.

Her YouTube videos, in which she explains the ills of "big pharma" and global capitalism, have been viewed by hundreds of thousands.

She admits some people have asked "how can you have a nun running the country?"

"A lot of people are still very anticlerical and with the history we had with Franco in power, it is understandable that there are many progressive people who have always seen the Church as the enemy," she said.

The fact that she is consistently critical of the Church from within may have helped boost her credibility as a politician aiming to bring about radical reform, she added.

In a 2013 interview, she argued for women priests and for leaving contraception and abortion to individuals' consciences.

"The Roman Catholic Church, which is my church, is misogynist and patriarchal in its structure. That needs to be changed as quickly as possible," she said then.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• Image: The Guardian

Forcades — a Benedictine nun, activist, feminist theologian and physician from Catalonia in Spain — and Francis — a Jesuit pope from Argentina — share a kindred vision of empowering the poor through nonviolence.

Both understand the relationship between capitalism and poverty.

Francis has denounced the "idolatry of money" and implored world leaders to assure all people "dignified work, education and healthcare."

In a way, Forcades takes it further by advocating that the state must be challenged from the bottom up. The people must be the agents of change.

"When I talk about church, we talk about how the Gospel inspired us. There are many kinds of church, and I identify with the people at the bottom, at the base.

"Many people have a hope that the Catholic church might change because of the pope, but if you look at history, change comes from bottom up, not from top down," Forcades said to a room overflowing with "local radical activists" Continue reading.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Image: psalmboxkey.com