After the catastrophe of the Prestige, the theme chosen for this year’s Day of People of the Sea has become surprisingly topical: “Sea, challenge to solidarity”. On 16 July the Feast of Our Lady of Carmine is celebrated throughout Spain. This year it emphasised the need to help seafaring men, not only materially but also spiritually. Msgr. Luis Quinteiro Fiuza, auxiliary bishop of Santiago di Compostela and promoter of the Apostolate of the Sea in Spain, recalled that “solidarity and brotherhood emerged in a particular way following the sinking of the oil tanker, the Prestige”. Bishop Quinteiro, directly addressing seafarers, told them that “the Church continues to be on your side in the effort to obtain more just and decent conditions for your life”. The delegate for the Apostolate of the Sea in Barcelona, Ricardo Rodríguez-Martos, told SirEurope that “the Church is trying to help seamen by setting up hostels, by providing them with legal assistance, by food and moral support for the ships abandoned by ship owners, help in communication with their families and so on”. Moreover, “the association founded by Cristina de Castro, Rosa dos Ventos, in Galicia, defends the rights of fishermen and has created a European network of seamen’s wives”, explained Rodríguez-Martos, who gave his assurance that 90% of the work of this specific apostolate is focused on welfare projects on behalf of people of the sea.
