The Santiago’s Church organizes an “apology” to the Apostle James to protest against the opening of the Carnival of Santiago.

The Archdiocese and the local People’s Party protested against the opening speech of the carnival of the city, given by actor Carlos Santiago, making a parody of St. James and ofthe “Virgen del Pilar”.
On Saturday, February 17, Santiago Cathedral will host an “act of contrition” for the apostle to protest this “blasphemy“. In a statement issued by the Archbishop of Compostela, Julian Barrio, and published by Europa Press, the archbishop said he was “sorry” for what he considers a “deplorable” spectacle. “Santiago and the Virgin of Pilar are linked to the memory and the life of this city and all the pathes that lead to the tomb of the Apostle” and “without them we would not be what we are“. “It is not acceptable” that “these icons can be seriously despised,” adds the statement, which comes after several days of controversy led mainly by a local newspaper. The Popular Party of Santiago and the party group in Zaragoza, who asked the mayor to apologize, joined the protest.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTLAtio9DUw
Carlos Santiago gave the announcement of the Entroido 2018 from the balcony of the Pazo de Bendana.

The mayor of Santiago de Compostela, Martiño Noriega, considered that the show conformed to “freedom of expression” and denounced the death threats he received in the context of this controversy through social networks. Some of them have been published by the Mayor of Santiago on his profiles on Facebook and Twitter. For him: “The crier of the city is a playwritter who made a humorous intervention that everyone may not like” or “who can annoy“, but that is freedom of expression (as expressed constantly by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human rights). He regretted the emergence of a new “regressive” debate in which the “politically correct” encroaches on artistic expression and stressed that: “many people who speak about what happened have not even heard the opening proclamation of the festival nor have they contextualized it in the satire and criticism that constitute the spirit of a carnival“.

Already last year the Church and the Popular Party tried – without success – to have the Carnival’s manifesto censured as it was a satire of the pope.

Written on the basis of an article published on the website: www.eldiario.es  whose motto is:
“Religion is a source of power and requires the vigilance of society“.

The ancestral festival of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia

O Antroido is the name given to the carnival in Galicia. This festival is very rooted in this region and especially in its capital, Santiago-de-Compostela. The masked and disguised inhabitants parade through all the streets of the city. On Tuesday, there is a colorful parade with floats and “comparsas”, groups of friends and neighbors who gather to party. A satirical procession is organized on Ash Wednesday, which marks the end of the festivities and the beginning of Lent. At the end of the procession, the Meco, the character embodying the carnival, is burnt in O Toural square.