Spain: Beatification of Isabelle the Catholic favored by the archbishop of Granada

On Sunday November 28, Mgr. Javier Martinez, archbishop of Granada, in southern Spain, put forward Isabelle the Catholic as a model for Christians today faced with secularism. During a cermony in his cathedral, in the presence of around twenty Spanish bishops, the prelate said he thought that the “Queen Isabelle was famous for her human greatness in a context where violence, deceit and corruption were common practice.”

 In his sermon, the archbishop of Granada expressed again his wish for an acceleration of her beatification process, currently under way. The first step which corresponds with the judgment of historians has already been taken by the Holy See. He went on to say that there is still the opinion of the theologians in order to pursue, at the request of the Holy Father, the process with a view to her beatification, followed by her canonization

 In April 2003, the Spanish bishops repeated their request to the pope for the beatification of Isabelle of Castille (1451-1504). As long ago as 1999, a similar initiative caused a stir in Spain and Latin America. Especially as the idea was supported by General Franco, in 1958.

 Five hundred years after her death, Spain is still invoking the heritage of Isabelle the Catholic. The former leader of the Spanish conservative government, José Maria Aznar, recently placed himself in line with this Queen who achieved the reconquest of Spanish territory from the Arabs, maintaining that “the problems of Spain with Al Qaida did not begin with the Iraqi crisis, but from the moment when Spain refused to be just one more little piece of the Islamic world, after having been conquered by the Moors.”

 According to sources close to the document file, the process of beatification is experiencing “both progress and setbacks”…