Integrated community
It’s not surprising that Filipinos are considered the most integrated immigrant community in Spain. The Philippines was once a Spanish colony. Spain introduced Catholicism to the country.
Our national hero, Dr. José Rizal, had profound intellectual, personal, and political connections to Spain. He traveled secretly to the country in 1882 to finish his education. He attended the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning degrees in medicine, philosophy and literature. His writings, especially his novels, were considered subversive.
After he returned to the Philippines, the Spanish colonial government had him executed on Dec. 30, 1896, by a firing squad of Filipino troops, backed by Spanish soldiers, at Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park) in Manila. His execution ignited the Philippine Revolution against Spain.
Pope Leo XIV challenged politicians and society to evaluate their morals by how they protect the most fragile of people. He said safeguarding human life from “conception to its natural end” is a fundamental goal of civilization, and not a partisan issue.
He challenged Spain to provide safe legal pathways and respectful integration for migrants.
He also challenged the international community to fix the root causes of poverty, violence, and climate change so that “no one has to leave their home due to a lack of peace.”
Spain is a most secularized society; only an estimated 9 million people are practicing Catholics out of a total population of 49.69 million. About 1 million attended Pope Leo’s Mass in Madrid.
Leo spoke about the right to life since abortion and euthanasia are completely legal and regulated by law in Spain, and the services are part of the Spanish health care system.
“All human life must be recognized and protected from conception to natural death, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable become the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person,” he said.
“Therefore, the moral greatness of a nation is shown, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect, and love those lives that are most fragile,” he added.
He also had much to say about clerical child abuse in Spain.
A landmark 2023 report by Spain’s national ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, used an extensive public poll to project that 0.6 percent of Spain’s adult population — roughly 200,000 — were abused by clergy. That figure jumps to 400,000 (1.13 percent) when it includes lay staff at Church-run schools and institutions.
The Spanish Church said in June it had discovered 927 cases of clerical child abuse through a complaints procedure launched in 2020. There are almost no convictions of clerical child abusers, as more than 60 percent of the accused clerics are already dead, and the Spanish statute of limitations has prevented legal actions against the abusers.
Pope Leo had this to say about it: “Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice, reparation and an ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.”
“Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing,” he said.
With these words, he could be talking to the Philippine clergy, as well./PN
