Spain’s Catholic Church has promised to respect a Supreme Court judgment barring the exhumation of General Francisco Franco from his mausoleum outside Madrid, while appealing to both sides in the dispute to find common ground.
“Our Church and the Vatican have always urged agreement between his family and the government, which could help smooth conflicts over the nature of our republic, the war and dictatorship”, said Bishop Luis Arguello Garcia of Valladolid, the bishops’ conference secretary-general. “We now call on everyone to look beyond this dialectic of opposites and find a reconciliatory third way to help us move forward. It’s regrettable matters have been placed in the hands of the courts.”
