I wonder if the MSM will have any coverage of this.
From freerepublic.com
Left-wing anarchists blamed for Zaragoza Basilica bombing [Spain]
A small bomb consisting of a camping gas cylinder combined with gunpowder exploded in Zaragoza Basilica in Spain on Wednesday afternoon. No one was injured and left-wing anarchists against the Bourbon monarchy are being blamed.
The bomb exploded in the central area of the Zaragoza Basilica of our Lady of the Pillar (Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza) at around 13:50 local time. There were no injuries and no damage to the Baroque church was reported.
Spanish news agency Efe is reporting that police suspect left-wing anarchists in the placing of the home-made device. Reportedly the bomb bore the hallmarks of similar devices used by left-wing groups….
A large cloud of smoke and dust emanated from the explosion, frightening parishioners who were waiting to attend Mass at 14:00. Fortunately the area where the bomb exploded was empty of people at the time….
Police believe that the work is being organized by radical anarchist leaders from Greece and Italy. Information Commissioner General, Enrique Barón says “it is terrorism, pure and simple.”
One of your readers sent this:
I don’t know whether or not you’ve already heard about this, but yesterday someone planted a small explosive device in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (Nuestra Señora del Pilar) in Zaragoza.
The explosive device was a homemade one, created using a small butane gas tank and hidden underneath a pew in the main chapel of the Basilica. Thank God there was no Mass being offered at the time and that no one was sitting on that pew. No one was seriously injured, although one woman who was praying near where the explosive device was placed was reported to have suffered some damage in one ear. The basilica did not suffer any significant damage beyond the destruction of several pews. The altar and its magnificent marble altarpiece were unaffected, as was the Pillar and the image of Our Lady.
12 October is the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar. Not only is she the patron Zaragoza, but of all of Spain, and is a national holiday throughout the country. It’s also the Día de la Hispanidad in most of the Spanish-speaking world, celebrating the cultural bonds and linguistic ties between Spain and her former territories. There’s little chance that the timing of this was accidental then, as the city prepares for the festival. Initial reports suggest that individuals from Spain linked to an Italian anarchist group may be behind the attack.
Perhaps you also remember that a bomb of similar construction was placed in the cathedral of Madrid back in February. In that case, the device was discovered by a parishioner and deactivated by police before it exploded.
Below is a link to one of the regional newspapers in Aragon with info about yesterday’s explosion in the Basilica. If I have a bit of time on my break, I’ll try to find one in English to forward to you, or I’ll translate the most relevant sections of that article.
Explota un artefacto en la Basilica del Pilar
God bless, Father. Be assured of my prayers for you, and please say a quick one for me today if you can.
UPDATE:
WaPo has it.
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Shameful.
Such things hit all the closer to home when you know the location in question. I visited the Basilica two years ago. A magnificent building.
It is hard to realize this, but anarchists in Europe are organized, which is rather ironic. If one remembers the Occupy Rome of October of 2011, which I do well, at least one shrine of Our Lady was desecrated, the crucifix ruined and the Lady statue smashed. Fr. Z, I think you had photos of some of this on the blog.
The anarchists do not believe in any government or any rules, and therefore, are used by other groups which benefit from their adolescence temper tantrums. Such groups as the socialists and communists take advantage of anarchy.
That they targeted this beautiful church so close to the feast day is not an accident of course. Anarchists are responsible for destroying many things and they have no plan for construction only destruction. We know who the Great Anarchist is and how he hates the Church, and especially Mary, the Woman who crushed his head.
I find it interesting that those who are ever at the ready to bash Islam whenever Islamic terrorists launch an attack all too often remain silent when modern secular liberals are the terroristic culprits. Attacking churches. Flying an airplane into a building. Blowing up a federal building. Attacking a Sikh temple. Attempting to shoot up the Family Research Council office. Arguably, even some of the school shootings. Why so few erudite hermeneutics on how secular liberalism is a mad death cult that ultimately leads to such violent behavior? Why so few critiques as to what the anti-Catholicism of Locke, Voltaire, and Jefferson has spawned and continues to spawn?
Not to mention the historic secular liberal legacy of Jacobins, Bolsheviks, and Nazis.
For the sake of clarity and charity, let me state that my post is not directed toward any specific individuals here. It is directed collectively at all who fit the general description. I don’t know anybody here personally, and I leave it to individuals to decide to what extent they do or don’t fit the description.
If anything had happened to the pillar or the statue, then that could have been a very ominous sign. If you have read The Mystical City of God, then according to Our Lady’s revelations to Venerable Mary of Agreda of Jesus, the pillar was brought by angels to the Apostle St. James the Greater and Our Lady appeared to him there. He had then built the first ever chapel in the world dedicated to Our Blessed Mother – while she was still alive.
Wikipedia has a pretty decent entry on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Pillar
I did read that to this day, according to the few who are responsible for care of the pillar and statue (all priests I believe), that the statue never even needs to be dusted.
This is really troubling…
But maybe the bombers were just following their consciences and making a mess. Who are we to judge?
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/04/19/espana/1366385885.html
Spanish press connects this bombing, to the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid and above mentioned nihilists and also to a parcel bomb sent to the very same archbishop of Zaragoza , which didn’t explode, this spring, one of several parcel bombs related to people in the church, (an extraordinarily collection of names ( consistent with nonspanishness), most of which blew up in post office sorting offices or were taken from thence by bombdisposal .
Nothing compared to Syria, Egypt, et of course, the story is more the enemedia silence.
Compared to….
NB
The Wapo article dates the Basilica to the 12 th century. This is misleading – the continuously worshippedat site is from Roman Times , howsoever sceptical you want to be and howsoever sneering and disbelieving in Tradition and miracles. Or you could always throw all archeology out the window if it doesn’t suit your narrative.
Why wasn’t it all destroyed and mosquefied in the centuries of Roman persecutions and the more thorough centuries of Moslem conquest and occupation? The old roman cathedral and parish churches of the “city of Ceasar Augustus” got the full treatment and were turned into mosques. The then building of “el pilar, “on the same site , is the oly one that wasn’t, tho I imagine it was sacked.
Why?
Well, go there now, how lovely, on a nice Riverbank. picturesque.
Roman times , Muslim times too, the site was a gungy rotting morass of slightly downstream waterside ooze serving as the city dump. Christians and their places were relatively safer there.
They never covered this report Father. I doubt they will cover Spain.
http://freepatriot.org/2013/09/30/syrian-rebels-destroy-melkite-church-northern-syria/
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Our Lady of the Pilar is not the patron of Spain, it’s the Inmaculate Conception (well, obviously both are our Our Lady, but you know what I mean).