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A group of families in the village of Benamargosa on the eastern side of Malaga province have complained that the local priest, Roger Roca, "refuses" to baptise their children or officiate in their first communion.
Roca claims that the families don't attend mass on Sundays and that they are not educating their offspring in the Catholic faith. Controversy is rife, as the bishopric of Malaga has backed the parish priest's decision, considering him "the only interlocutor, as he is the one who best knows the situation of these families".
The parents gathered outside the village's Encarnación church on Tuesday 16 July to protest against the priest and bishopric's decision. They have also started a petition and have written to the bishopric of Malaga and the Vatican. The Holy See has replied to say that it would "mediate" with the ecclesiastical institution in the province and with the Bishop of Malaga, Jesús Catalá.
Rocas arrived in the village two years ago and he is also the parish priest of Comares, and of the districts of Salto del Negro, which belongs to Cútar, and Triana, which belongs to Vélez-Málaga.
Mari Carmen Jaime, who is the village's first deputy mayor in Benamargosa and belongs to the Izquierda Unida (united left) political party) told SUR that she has been wanting to have her second daughter baptised for "almost a year". However, Jaime says that the priest pointed out to her that she "did not come to Sunday masses, only to the official ones".
"My surprise was that in June the archpriest of the area called me and told me that the bishop had given him permission to baptise the child and register her in the baptismal books. Two weeks later, the parish priest called me again, with the date already set, and told me that no, he would not baptise, because he said that we were not going to educate my daughter in the Christian faith", said Jaime, who criticised the priest for telling him to go to another church or to set up civil baptisms and communions. "I don't understand how this man, being a priest, incites people to move away from the church instead of bringing them closer to it," he said.
Jaime admitted that she could go to another church to have her daughter baptised, as other affected residents have done, but adds, "I don't want to leave the church in my village where I was baptised and did my first communion, where I got married, was confirmed and had my first daughter baptised". The first deputy mayor added, "I want to believe that this whole issue has nothing to do with my political status, that we should not mix personal matters with politics."
José Antonio Gutiérrez, who is a Partido Popular (PP) councillor in opposition wants to have his son baptised in the village, but he said, "This man summoned me to his house and refused me the baptism of my son because I am not a good Catholic, according to him. In the end his son was baptised in nearby Almáchar, where his wife is from.
"His excuse is that as I don't come to mass on Sundays he refused to baptise my son, I told him that maybe I wouldn't go, that I wasn't a churchgoer, but that my family has always been involved in the church, with Holy Week and he told me that this was not Catholicism, that I was doing what suits me."
Gutiérrez also has a nephew who is due to do his first communion but Rocas has also refused to officiate "because he says he has no faith. I'm totally against it, he's hurting families", he said.
Noelia Fortes, another of the mothers, said that although her daughter was able to do her first communion and be confirmed, "the priest is doing things that are not appropriate for minors. He covered my daughter's eyes and told her to go down the stairs, my daughter fell, when I went to ask for explanations he told me that if she hit her head there was no problem, that he would fix it and if she had fallen it was because her friends were not looking after her", said the parent.
Fortes described the priest's actions as "harassment and bullying" and said that other things he has done during catechism classes have been driving the children around the village in the boot of a car and "another time he showed them the film of how Jesus was crucified and forced them to watch it, even though they didn't want to. He sent my daughter to fetch stones from the river, alone, a neighbour found her. Another time my daughter played the piano without his permission and he took her to the bathroom and put her head in the toilet and when she didn't want to, he put her in the sink and got her wet", said Fortes, who considered that the priest "is not fit to be with them".
The bishopric of Malaga replied that "the parish priest has always been the only interlocutor, as he is the one who knows the situation of these families best" and that the priest "has kept the bishop informed and has always stated that, according to the Church's regulations, the well-founded hope that the child will be educated in the Catholic religion is lacking; if this hope is completely lacking, baptism must be deferred, according to the provisions of particular law, making the parents aware of the reason, as set out in the Code of Canon Law".
According to the bishopric of Malaga, "the parish priest has never 'denied' the sacrament, he has only applied the church's norm of deferring the baptism". It goes on to say, "He has made this known to the parents, with whom he has a close and fluid relationship. Therefore, as soon as there is 'well-founded hope' of being educated in the Catholic faith, the girl could be baptised," the Malaga ecclesiastical institution said in a statement.
With regard to the first communion child, according to the Bishopric of Malaga, "the parish priest notes that the child does not have the necessary preparation or disposition and also prefers to defer communion".
It went on to say, "To celebrate and receive a sacrament from the age of reason it is necessary to know what is being received and to have a minimum of religious formation, an attitude of faith in wanting to live it and the will to do so", the Bishopric stated in the aforementioned communiqué.
In an email to which SUR has had access, sent in response to the mother who denounced the priest's alleged "inappropriate attitudes" towards minors attending catechism classes, the secretary of the Bishop of Malaga, Daniel Guerrero, replied that Monsignor Catalá "takes note of this situation and invites him to continue praying for the sanctification of priests".
Roger Rocas told SUR that he was not going to talk about specific cases, but he did admit that he has several families to whom he has said that he is in favour of "deferring" the sacraments until a series of requirements have been met.
"But you can never deny a sacrament," he added. "In the case of baptism, at least one godparent has to be confirmed and the parents have to accept the commandments of the Catholic faith," argued Roca, for whom if there are any cases "it will be for one of these reasons".
"The families have to make their commitments, if they lied, it will weigh on their behaviour", said the priest, who insisted that he would not analyse specific cases "for data protection reasons". However, in his opinion, this type of situation "happens all the time".
"The refusal is not definitive", he added. Questioned about his recommendation to Mari Carmen Jaime to set up civil communions and baptisms in the town hall, he said: "I support it 100 per cent, they are civil rites and I think they are a very good idea, just like funerals, when there is a secular farewell, without a religious ceremony".
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