Spain and the Vatican Disagree Over Franco’s Remains

Franco’s remains are currently interred in the Valley of the Fallen in Spain. (Pixabay)

Spanish Vice President Carmen Calvo asserted on October 30 that the Spanish government and the Catholic Church agree on impeding the transfer of Francisco Franco’s remains to Madrid’s cathedral.

According to El País, Calvo announced that the Spanish government will invoke the Historical Memory Law in order to exhume the dictator’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen, where he has lain since 1975. Moreover, she said that the government is determined to prohibit Franco’s inhumation in Madrid’s cathedral, La Almudena, as asked by his family.

A meeting between Calvo and the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on October 29 resulted in debate and confusion as the two sides contest what was discussed.

“The cardinal understood that we should look for an alternative in order for Franco’s remains to be buried with dignity but not in a place in which they could object to homage of any kind,” Calvo told El Mundo. “We agreed with the Vatican to work conjunctly to find an alternative which obviously cannot be the Almudena.”

Only hours after Calvo’s declarations, however, Vatican City issued an official communiqué in which it criticized Calvo’s communication and rejected being used as a political puppet in a conflict that it claims should remain exclusively between Franco’s family and the Spanish government.

“Regarding the purpose of the meeting that the Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See and the Vice President of the Government of Spain had, I want to make the following clear: Cardinal Pietro Parolin does not oppose the exhumation of Francisco Franco, if that has been the decision of the authorities, but in no moment was an opinion given about the place of the inhumation,” the Vatican’s communiqué clarified, according to El Mundo.

According to El País, neither the Spanish government nor the Vatican want to assume the responsibility of making the decision and do not want Franco’s remains to end up in Spain’s principal church in Madrid. Neither side wants a revered sacred space to turn into a pilgrimage site for Francoist members of the far right.

According to the Guardian, the government’s decision to exhume Franco’s body is an attempt to heal the pain that still lingers following the Spanish Civil War. Charges were never brought against those who committed crimes during Franco’s dictatorship, as they were protected by amnesty and a pact of silence in order to facilitate the transition from a dictatorial regime to a democracy.

Franco’s tomb at the Valley of the Fallen is considered divisive, as it makes it difficult to reconcile the deaths of the more than 34,000 combatants that are buried in the Valley.

“Spain needs a monument that unites rather than divides citizens,” the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, told the Guardian.

Franco’s family rejects the suggestion of divisiveness and claims that Franco’s exhumation is nothing more than a left-wing manipulation of history. They assure that if the government refuses to allow his body to be reburied in Almudena, the only alternative they will accept is that the government stop the exhumation and that Franco stays in the Valley of the Fallen.