Controversial plans by Spain’s governing Socialists to rebury General Francisco Franco will not be opposed by the Vatican, which has now instructed Church leaders to comply with government demands, according to the country’s media.
La Vanguardia reported that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, had stated this clearly in a letter to Spain’s vice-premier, Carmen Calvo, adding that Fr Santiago Cantera, prior of the Benedictine abbey responsible for Franco’s tomb, had been directed to respect government rulings on the issue. It said the latest exchange, which was confirmed by Bishop Luis Argüello Garcia, secretary-general of Spain’s bishops’ conference, took the Vatican a “significant step” beyond its previous insistence that the dictator’s reinterment was a “purely internal Spanish matter”.
