This Sunday, according to a document addressed to this newspaper by the priests José María Cabrera Pérez and Simón Pérez Reyes, La Laguna will receive the Nuncio of His Holiness the Pope in Spain, Manuel Monteiro de Castro, a moment that they will take advantage of to personally request the creation of the Archdiocese of the Canary Islands with headquarters on the island of Lanzarote.
In the statement, the priests explain that the reason for their visit is motivated by an event "of high ecclesial significance", this also being an important social event, "since some cardinal, archbishops, bishops, hundreds of priests, religious and many Christians will be present together with the Nuncio, with all certainty", as well as the highest representations of the Canarian Government and archipelago politics. All this to attend the Episcopal Consecration of Bernardo Álvarez Afonso, a Palmeran islander, who in turn, takes canonical possession as residential Bishop of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Nivariense Diocese.
This is the third time that the Nuncio has visited the Canary Islands in less than two years. The first time he was invited by the Bishop of the Diocese of the Canary Islands, Ramón Echaren Ystúriz, to visit it pastorally, as it was preparing for the celebration of the VI Centenary of the creation of the Diocese; the second visit was to close the religious Exhibition "The footprint and the path" and the other acts of the VI Centenary. Now, and for the third time, to preside over the religious ceremony, on the sister island of Tenerife, "the aforementioned Episcopal Consecration of which all the priests and the Canarian people in general are proud".
In this way, the priests explain to this newspaper that "those of us who endorse this document, priests of the Diocese of the Canary Islands, believe it is appropriate to express aloud our reflection and opinion to convey to such high dignities of the Spanish Catholic Church and especially to the Most Excellent Mr. Nuncio, ambassador of the Vatican in our country, what many priests, religious, Christians of both Dioceses serenely think", adding that "this reflection is the product of many interpersonal and group meetings, between priests and Christian faithful in the different tasks and co-existences that we maintain for pastoral reasons". "Our approach is born from an endearing and unconditional love for the Church, which is one and indivisible, in which we work and for which we are willing to leave our skin on the road", they recall, adding that "in this same sense we express our fidelity to the Canarian people of whom we are part, as believers and as Canarians".
To justify their initiative, they explain that the Canary Islands, as such, has an ecclesial journey of 600 years as a particular Church, whose anniversary we have just celebrated to celebrate that distant day when Pope Benedict XIII with the Bull Romanus Pontifex created the Diocese of Rubicón on July 7, 1404. In addition, they say that as an overseas territory, located in the Atlantic Ocean, it is 1000 kilometers from the Iberian Peninsula and 2000 kilometers from the capital of the State, with 8 islands, divided into two Dioceses presided over by two residential Bishops, and that they structure two autonomous particular Churches, and it may be the case, as has happened at some historical moment, that there may have been significant difficulties for the pastoral coordination required by the guidelines of Vatican II. They also indicate that it is known to all that Canarian society, for its part and against its will, carries an old island dispute.
This confrontation, which initially only affected the dominant groups, however, in recent decades has been permeating, more and more, and spreading to sectors not only of political parties but also social and popular.
In their opinion, the Diocese of the Canary Islands, like the Nivariense, has experienced a strong population growth in recent decades, reaching very worrying levels, whose data in summary are as follows: between 1960 and 2001 the Canarian population grew by more than 800,000 people; only in the period 1991-2001 the population in Spain increased by 6%, while in the Canary Islands it did so by 19%, that is, by 287,500 residents, a figure that made it the second community that grew the most after the Balearic Islands. Therefore, as a response to the evangelizing challenge of the nearly two million inhabitants of the Canary Islands and the multicultural network of races, cultures, languages and beliefs that coexist here and that are demanding a qualified and specific pastoral care, they propose Nuncio the creation of the Archdiocese of the Canary Islands.
"We are convinced that the creation of the Archdiocese of the Canary Islands will favor the long-awaited ecclesiastical pastoral unity demanded by the Second Vatican Council, as well as the service to the unity of all the Canarian people. We make this request based on the different and prominent personalities of the cultural, social and ecclesial world who on other occasions have expressed themselves, among them the one proposed in his day by the historian, professor, and president of the Canarian Academy of History, Dr. Antonio Betancourt Massieu, Canary Islands Award 1992.
Consequently, if a third one is created by tradition, it inevitably corresponds to Lanzarote, because the Canariense-Rubicense comes from this island by transfer", they clarify. "And to avoid reluctance, in the case of this location, I also believe it is fair that a fourth one be established simultaneously in Santa Cruz de La Palma. Thus, the Canary Islands will be divided into four dioceses. From east to west, the Rubicense, or Bishopric of Rubicón in Lanzarote with jurisdiction over Fuerteventura as in the 15th century", they finally point out.
