There is no limit to the ludicrous lengths the faithful will go to pay homage to their imaginary friends. But the next one that comes down the pike is always funny in a new way. And here’s one, as reported by the UK’s Rationalist Association. This one has gotten Spanish secularists (I’m glad there are some!) taking their government to court:
Spain’s gold medal of police merit is normally reserved for police who have died in terrorist attacks. So it came as a surprise when the country’s interior minister, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, decided instead to award it to an icon of the Virgin Mary in Malaga.
Announcing the award in February, Diaz congratulated the statue and her congregation for “maintaining a close collaboration with police, particularly during the acts celebrated in Holy Week, and for sharing police values such as dedication, caring, solidarity, and sacrifice”.
An icon gets an award for doing nothing! And it has values! How does Diaz know?
It’s a horrible embarrassment for a normally sensible country. And it isn’t the first time Diaz has pulled such a boneheaded move:
In 2012, he gave the highest honour of the Guardia Civil (the Spanish gendarmerie) to the Virgin of the Pillar in Zaragoza. This icon is the patron saint of the Guardia Civil, and Diaz paid tribute to the “deep roots of the patronage”. Last year, he suggested divine help was helping Spain out of the economic crisis, saying that Mother Teresa was “making important intercessions” for Spain “during these tough times”.
Fortunately, the secularists and the police, who are rightfully offended that a piece of plaster gets a medal instead of one of their bravest members, are made as hell and aren’t going to take it:
The decision has angered members of the police force. “Give the Virgin whatever you like, take her some flowers, make her the patron saint of our people, but don’t give her a police medal, least of all one reserved for police officers who have lost their lives in an attack,” José María Benito, a representative of the police officers’ union, told the online daily El Boletín.
It has also infuriated secularists. “The norm specifies clearly that the medal is given to people, not immaterial beings,” said Francisco Delgado of Secular Europe. “It’s meant to recognise exceptional acts of service by police.”
Along with the Movement Towards A Secular State (Movimiento hacia un estado laico), Secular Europe is taking the interior minister to court over the award. The country’s 1978 constitution officially enshrines the separation of church and state, but in practice the two have remained enmeshed.
These are hopeful signs in a country still staunchly religious.
h/t: Grania
The title of this post sounds like something from The Onion.
My thought too!
No, really, it’s an unusually brave icon. You’ve never seen one braver.
“These are hopeful signs in a country still staunchly religious.”
I hope they get over their moral paralysis, common to many Catholic countries, and ban the public torture of animals for the amusement of a mainly catholic public. Ah well, the Catholic Church was born inside the Roman Empire, and the Romans were quite a cruel lot.
Yeah, it is called the ROMAN Catholic Church.
As much as the natives of Palestine despised the Roman occupation, how is it that the fledgling Christian church ever attach “Roman” to it moniker? Likely on account of Constantine, eh?
Constantine saw it as a practical way to dominate and control the population, just as outlined by Plato, who argued that you had to tell lies to the plebeians, and persecute those who refused to believe these lies with prison, brainwashing and execution, while the upper class could indulge in the posh astral religion. This is why Plato is such a hero among theologians–he was a quite nasty job.
Well you’ve also got the Holy Roman Empire, Romania, and the Rom. There was cache in claiming to be the inheritors of Rome, so various groups at various times in history stuck “Rome” in their name.
I don’t think they ever did, officially. It’s just so convenient for folks to append it, to distinguish the Papists from all the other Holy Catholic and Apostolic Churches out there.
Roy Moore sent Diaz a congratulatory note. Moore told him he could set the Protestant-Catholic business aside this once because the Spaniard went out of his way to stick it to secularists, and that the next time Diaz is in Alabama be sure to stop in for some shrimp and grits – beats the hell outa that paella, and there’ll be sweet potato pie for dessert to boot.
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It’s a horrible embarrassment for a normally sensible country
I don’t know, I was just in Spain. I was in the city of Sevilla during Holy Week and the place is nuts over it. Half the city closes up between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday (so I headed for the Mediterranean coast and then Granada).
I haven’t looked up the religious demographics and I’m sure they’re more secular than the US, but my experience says “god-soaked.”
Which probably says more about how god-soaked is America than how secular Spain is.
You were in the most Catholic part of Spain during the most Catholic week of the year. I have lived in Spain more than 10 years without meeting a self-described Catholic even once, if Catalunya counts as part of Spain (blood could be draw for that comment in some parts…).
That said, Semana Santa is pretty creepy, with the KKK-look-a-like hoods, the depressing procesesions, the self-flagellations, and the worship of suffering in general. Most of the time, Spain is quite the opposite.
In a disturbing trend, Diaz reportedly got in big trouble with his wife when he gave a wedding anniversary bouquet of roses to the family garden gnome.
Are there elections coming up?
Fall of 2015, but don’t to see any changes in goverment, such as the socialists re-taking power. The PP will probably stay in control.
sorry-‘don’t EXPECT to see…’
“The norm specifies clearly that the medal is given to people, not immaterial beings,”
A statue is immaterial??
Immaterial can also mean:
Spiritual, rather than physical. Not consisting of matter.
“we have immaterial souls”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immaterial
Here’s a photo of the statue. Apparently the award hasn’t made Our Lady of Consolation and Tears very happy. And according to the article, this is the second time an award has been given to a statue.
http://www.thelocal.es/20140226/police-fury-over-spanish-virgin-mary-medal-award
Things used to be a lot worse in Spain. If you’re up for a bout of nausea, Google “youtube cara al sol” and watch the video that goes along with the anthem of the Spanish fascists under Franco.
As a resident of Spain, I am embarrassed but not surprised. Just wait for the PP (our GOP) to get voted out and there will be a noticeable decline in stupid political maneuverings. But the Socialists cannot seem to take advantage of the loony bits the PP keeps throwing out there, and probably won’t win the next elections either.
I’ve lived here >10 years and have never met a serious Spanish Catholic.
For what it’s worth, in Catalunya at least, no one is talking about this story. They are talking about Urdangarin (royal corruption), they are talking about Barcenas (political corruption by the suitcase load–of cash of course). They are talking about the 27% unemployment and the next round of cuts in 2015 and 2016 that the EU commission will impose on us (published yesterday in El País), cutting our salaries back even more. We have signed, legal documents here called ‘work contracts’ which specify your salary like anyplace, but that means nothing in Spain. If you are a PI here trying to get your first grant, just quit. Scientists are treated like trash here. If you want respect, be a bank. Think the banks are tyrannical in the US? In Spain, no one even pretends to challenge them. I am surprised they haven’t given any medals to banks here. At least this story only describes religious posturing. Soon they will give awards to the banks that failed due to unethical practices which they can hang next to their bailout medals.
Meanwhile, just up north in Switzerland and Germany, the salaries are rising higher than ever, so at least our northern Overlords can vacation here in style as we try to do science without grants (or paychecks some months).
I wish medals given to statues were our biggest concern in Spain. But it’s always nice to get exposure.
Holy shit i hadn’t heard a thing about this O_o
To be honest, this is embarrashing but hardly worrying. Sure, in the south there is still a very clear catholic majority, but elsewhere it’s only the older demographics that keep catholicism alive. My generation is majoritarily non-religious and even those who identify as religious can’t be arsed to go to church and don’t let their believes get in the way.
There is much to work on spanish society but the trend towards secularism is very clear and not subtle at all…it’s advancing like a wave.
Up north, finding someone under 40 who identifies as catholic and regularly goes to church is like finding a very silly unicorn.
Not that we should relax and assume the war is won, of course…but things are looking quite good.
The news fail to report on the response of many secular citizens: they have gathered over 20000 signatures requesting that the same medal is given to “Mortadelo and Filemón”, two popular children-strip characters in Spain. The petition says:
“Following the honorary award of the Police Merit Golden Medal to Virgin Mary, we request an equal award to Mortadelo Y Filemón, also fiction characters which have humorously exalted the virtues of the Police Forces through their comic stripts”.
https://www.change.org/es/peticiones/ministerio-del-interior-concesi%C3%B3n-de-la-medalla-al-m%C3%A9rito-policial-a-mortadelo-y-filem%C3%B3n
Silly as it looks, this is no anecdote. Conservative politicians are using religion to distract citizens while proceeding to strip them of their social, economic and legal rights. By dismanteling the (already weak) separation between church and state, they gather the support of ultraconservatives (angry on them due to tax rises and crony widespread corruption) – and, by forcing all other citizens to fight against religious intrusion (abortion law, compulsory teaching of religion at school, “religionization” of the policy and judicial establishment), they distract them from social activism against rapidly increasing inequality.
A medal for Mortadelo & Filemón (Dutch: Paling & Ko)? I would support that. I liked these comics as a kid.
That is fucking hilarious, i just signed it.
I’ve seen that statue at the cathedral in Málaga, and though she was appropriately ‘statuesque’ she didn’t seem like a paragon law enforcement officer.
But this does give me an idea. If the practice of honoring statuary for police work spreads across Europe then I would like to nominate Pierre, Gargoyle Third Class at Notre Dame, for the highest award in the French gendarmerie (which I would call the the Clouseau Medal).
I’m ROTFL but with a confused expression. Is that deification or reification? Maybe it’s some reideification…
Made as hell and not afraid to show the fire!
I am Spanish, raised in Spain and now living in the UK. Both my parents are atheists, my brother and sister too, and all my cousins and most of my uncles and aunties. All, and I mean all of my friends are atheists too.
There are some Christians in Spain (one of my girlfriends for example) but for comparison I have met many more Christians in the UK than I have in Spain in spite the whole easter rigmarole and other religious festivities.
Yeah, and the fact that I am named after the archangel 🙂
That is bascially my experience too. While my parents are catholic, my brother, most of my cousins and ALL of my friends and acquaintances are atheists….and not because i have explicitely selected for this, but because among people my age, this is the most common scenario. It is genuinely surprising to find someone of roughly my age who believes in gods, let alone that identifies as catholic. Obviously such people exist and according to recent polls they are still quite numerous, but somehow they seem to be avoiding my area because everywhere you look there are atheists.