The other day a university chapel in Madrid was disrupted and profaned and vandalized.
Now comes this.
From CNA:
Historic Spanish church vandalized with satanic symbols
Almeria, Spain, Mar 11, 2011 / 05:54 pm (CNA).- A 100-year-old church under restoration in the Diocese of Almeria, Spain was vandalized with graffiti and satanic symbols the weekend of March 5.
Workers found the interior of the church vandalized with satanic drawings and graffiti on March 7. Experts said it appeared the intention was to give the impression of a satanic ceremony.
The vandalism took place after the diocese won a long-fought legal battle against a private company that wanted to turn the church into a dance club and tourist site. The diocese was waiting for an official construction permit from local officials to begin renovation.
The Church of Las Salinas de Cabo de Gata, built in 1907, has been closed for worship since 2004 due to its deteriorating structure.
[…]
There’s a short article with a picture in Tuesday’s religionenlibertad.com http://bit.ly/f78NVw
FWIW, I believe this to be more vandalism than satanism, since the article mentions the existence of several sentences written on the floor which look like Latin but don’t make any sense. If this had been done by people who took satanism seriously, I think they would have taken care to write correctly.
Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison, Christe Eleison, Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison
Sancta Maria, Ora pro nobis.
@ Emilio III: In one sense, I understand and agree with you: it was probably a bunch of teenage idiots who thought it would be fun to spray satanic symbols on a Catholic church. In another sense—still satanic.
I just looked at the picture linked above. Very disturbing. Even if the culprits are not actual Satanists, their actions leave them open to the Evil One. Pray for those who did this and pray that the Church is excorcised.
Sorry for the typo above. Let us use this time of Lent to rediscover the power of the sacramentals as well as the Sacraments.
Ungrateful Spaniards. The Catholic Church, together Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, fought hard and liberated their country of its Muslim oppressors five centuries ago, and this is how they repay them?
This looks an awful lot like the 1930s.
Christ, have mercy of them.
Found an interesting web page about the church. Simple but pretty (before the desecration):
http://www.culturandalucia.com/ALMER%C3%8DA/CABO_DE_GATA/LAS_SALINAS/Las_Salinas_de_Cabo_de_Gata_%C3%81RTICULO_IGLESIA.htm
Use Google translate if you can’t read the Spanish.
Pray to Our Mother of Sorrows.
Catherine
Amen to what Dirichlet said!
Ungrateful Spaniards, indeed!
I agree with most of the above comments. I still have 2 questions, though:
1. Isn’t 100 years not only new for a Spanish church, but also a short time for a well-built church to become dilapidated?
2. When the church went into disuse, was it de-consecrated?
I don’t know about Spain but in the U.S. they could have made it into a church and STILL had plenty of dancing, even a bit of Wicca if they didn’t call it that.