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“To the strategy of hatred the only effective response is that of love”, declared Cardinal Antonio M. Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, in his homily during the State funerals for the victims of the terrorist attacks of 11 March, celebrated in the cathedral of Almudena in Madrid on 24 March. Addressing the families of the victims, the archbishop said that “your grief was that of Madrid, of Spain and of the whole world: we wept and prayed together”. Citing a Gospel verse, Cardinal Rouco affirmed that “the terrorist bears with him the seed of eternal death”: “The strategy of terrorism he said always sows hatred as the ultimate inspiration and motivation of its actions. That’s what happened with the massacre of 11 March. The way that terrorists organize, plan and act may be defined as a strategy of hatred that bears murder and death in its heart. We must not let ourselves be deceived about the true nature of its ultimate plans and objectives. Terrorists aim to attack and destroy the community life, concord and peace of the Spanish people and advance in the achievement of one of their most important objectives: progressively and rapidly subverting the moral and spiritual foundations on which our societies and nations of Christian roots are based”. The archbishop condemned “every form of extreme nationalism, racism and intolerance” and asked the relatives of the victims to “overcome enmity with the power of forgiveness”. He also had words for the terrorists, urging them to “give themselves up to justice and abandon their sinister plans”. In his Angelus prayer last Sunday the Pope recalled once again the suffering of Spain and of the whole world as a result of the atrocity in Madrid. “Love said John Paul II is stronger than hatred and death!”.
