Church leaders have appealed for calm in Spain’s autonomous Catalonia region after hundreds of people were detained by the authorities and more than 800 injured during a disputed independence referendum.
Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, urged all parties to engage in “prayers and calm” following the vote.
“The violence experienced in Catalonia is deplorable,” he said. “We have to find a peaceful and democratic way out of this situation.”
The cardinal’s appeal came as Catalonia regional president Carles Puigdemont said in a televised address after polls closed that Catalans had “won the right to statehood”.
The vote went ahead despite Spain’s constitutional court suspending a law passed by the Catalonian parliament which said that if more than 50 per cent of voters in the referendum supported independence, the state would secede. The paramilitary Civil Guard used batons and rubber bullets to close polling stations and seize ballot boxes, triggering violence against protesters.
The president of the Tarraconense episcopal conference, which includes prelates from Barcelona and Tarragona archdioceses, urged Catholics to “trust the God of peace”.
Catalonia, the wealthiest of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, is home to 7.5 million people and has its own language and culture. Separatist politicians promised a referendum after forming a coalition government in 2015.
The vote was backed as conforming to “Gospel and humanistic values” by more than 400 Catholic clergy and members of religious orders, about 20 per cent of Catalonia’s total. The message was sent to Pope Francis, leading to a formal protest by Spain’s ambassador to the Holy See, Gerardo Bugallo.
Preaching on Sunday, Cardinal Omella urged citizens to “abandon their egoisms and think more about others”.
The Tarraconense Episcopal Conference, which represents all the bishops in Catalonia, called for Catholics to “advance the path of dialogue and understanding, respect for rights and institutions and non-confrontation”.
Officials said 844 people, including 33 police officers, were injured in the clashes.
Pope: respect migrants’ stories
Pope Francis has urged people not to judge migrants’ “harshly and coldly” during a visit to a government-run processing centre in Bologna.
The Pope said: “Many people don’t know you and they’re afraid.” But, he added, “one sees well only up close, which gives mercy”.
He said: “Each of you has your own story and this story is something sacred. We must respect it.”
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