Madrid, Spain, Mar 21, 2011 / 09:58 am
Nearly 1,000 people, including students, professors and their families, attended a March 18 Mass of Reparation at the chapel of the Complutense University in Madrid.
The massive attendance came in response to an anti-Catholic protest at the chapel. On March 10, nearly 70 students stormed the altar, shouting insults against the Catholic Church. Some were reported to be undressed from the waist up.
At the Mass of Reparation, Auxiliary Bishop Cesar Franco of Madrid defended the right to religious freedom in Spain and stressed that there is a time and a place for debate and dialogue, such as in college classrooms.
Universities are “an appropriate place” for reflection and dialogue on diverse issues, but the acts of “vandalism” which took place in the chapel were “incomprehensible” and “hurtful to religious sensibilities,” he said.