With a telegram sent to the Spanish Minister of Defence, José Antonio Alonso Suárez, and the military Ordinary, Archbishop Francisco Pérez González, on 25 June, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference has expressed its condolence for the death of six Spanish soldiers and the injury of a further two in a terrorist bomb blast in Lebanon on the previous day. The soldiers formed part of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission. In the telegram, the general secretary of the episcopate, Msgr. Juan Antonio Martínez Camino expresses gratitude for the soldiers’ dedication and condemns “the terrorist action that no cause can justify”. Camino also expresses on behalf of all the bishops his own closeness to and solidarity with the families of the victims, accompanied by prayers for the victims and for the recovery of the injured”. For his part, the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, has expressed his “grief” for the death of six Spanish soldiers, of whom one, Johnathan Galea García, was an 18-year-old native of Madrid. Cardinal Rouco Varela and his auxiliary bishops also pray that “the grave conflicts” in the Middle East may be overcome, that “the sound of gunfire may cease and peace be established, based on true justice and on the greatness of mercy, for, as the Servant of God John Paul II said, there can be no peace without justice, and no justice without forgiveness”. Lastly, since “wars and terrorism show the terrible consequences of sin, which consists not just in killing, but in turning one’s back on God”, the Archbishop of Madrid and his auxiliaries “appeal to all Catholics for a conversion of heart, and to be constant in prayer and in doing God’s will”.
