Spanish Oddities
Spanish Catholic Church launches an attack on Halloween
By h.b. - Oct 26, 2009 - 8:40 PM
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EFE archive
The Church claims the fiesta of Halloween has come from Hollywood and has an Anti-Christ undercurrent
The Spanish Catholic Church has warned that Halloween ‘has an anti-Christ and occult undercurrent’, and is not an innocent fiesta.
A statement from the Episcopal Conference, and its Director of Liturgy, Joan María Canals, released a week before this year’s Halloween, warned of the risk that ‘pagan and imported’ customs could see other ‘deeply rooted and beneficial’ Christian customs disappear.
They say the Catholic fiesta held in Spain on November 1 for All Saints is fine, because ‘it celebrates life, and not death’.
The Church goes on to blame Hollywood and the parents who favour their children dressing up as witches, vampires and ghosts, playing with elements of death. The Church notes however that when someone in the family dies, the same parents keep the children away, and this showed ‘a lack of logic’.
The Bishop of Sigüenza-Guadalajara, Monseñor José Sánchez, said that it was the influence of American cinema to blame for all this, and that people did not really know what they were celebrating.