Catholic gypsies turn 600 years of presence in Spain

The director of the Department for the Pastoral of the Gypsies of the CEE, José Emiliano Rodríguez Amador, defines the Catholics of this ethnicity as “little, but true” on the 600th anniversary of his arrival in Spain.

A document dated in 1425 is the first historical vestige in which the arrival in Spain of a gypsy is collected. In him, King Alfonso V of Aragon, nicknamed the magnanimous, granted a safe -conduct to the so -called Juan de Egypt Minor, for a time of three months, to be respected in his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

This event had a special porch, when in January Pope Francis sent a carta in which they transmitted their affection and pointed out the particular challenges facing the gypsy people and encouraged them to face the future with hope in the framework of the ordinary jubilee.

“The gypsies were loquitos to see that the Holy Father directed a personal letter for us. It was wonderful,” Rodríguez Amador details Aci Press. They would have wanted to meet the Argentine pontiff, but, he assumes that “we will do it when it is time to do it in the kingdom of Undebel (God).”

Now they hope to join Pope Leo XIV on October 18 and 19 in Rome, within the 2025 jubilee events.

Gypsy people in Spain challenges

In Spain there are about 700,000 gypsies that face important challenges such as training and professional development or social inclusion.

“The good thing is that about 15 and 20 years some were leaving behind their own marginalization from within the same family, betting more for young people to end up with university careers or professional training studies,” says Rodríguez, who develops his work from Granada.

However, he acknowledges that “it is not a remarkable increase” and there are many who do not finish secondary studies.

On the other hand, Rodríguez explains that the gypsies “maintain a very good relationship” in general with the “Payos” or “Castilians”, as they call the Spaniards who are not from their ethnicity, although with a condition: “This happens if there is a disinterested interest by the ‘Payo’. That is, that the gypsies do not feel used.”

In the workplace, Rodríguez denounces that there is still “distrust of entrepreneurs and this makes marginalization continue to exist in sections.” It also denounces certain racist attitudes.

A handful of Catholic gypsies

Catholic gypsies are not oblivious to these problems. Although there is no official figure, Rodríguez estimates that they must be about 400 or more those who participate in the evangelization and social promotion activities developed by the Gypsy Pastoral.

The majority, therefore, are evangelical Christians or, as they say in their slang, “those of the cult.” Despite this, there is good coexistence: “There is a very rooted link in our culture that keeps us together as the root on earth. In my case I have relatives who are from the evangelical cult and we enter debates of faith, but we are gypsies and our values ​​by law are based on respect for a gypsy or gypsy,” he says.

On the other hand, in the parishes there is a good integration between Payos and Gypsies. According to the head of the Gypsy Pastoral, “we all love God and also work a pastoral work in the parish together. The gypsy who is involved understands what pastoral work is: evangelization, celebration, social work, etc.. And if these are in charge of a choir of songs, they become essential in the parish.”

The most settled nuclei of Catholic gypsies are in the Andalusian provinces of Seville and Almería, where “the gypsy brotherhoods are the pillar of a Catholic religiosity in which the gypsy has felt at home,” says Rodríguez citing P. Plácido Manuel Díaz, delegate in Seville of Gypsy Pastoral.

Priority is evangelization

For José Emiliano Rodríguez, the priority of the department that directs “is always evangelization. That the gypsies feel church”, what goes through the work of all the delegates present in numerous Spanish dioceses, although not in all.

“In a diocese where there is not officially a gypsy pastoral delegate is like saying that there is nothing there is nothing at all. Thus, the possible Catholic gypsies are orphaned and their hopes of feeling church are clouded,” Rodriguez laments.

Despite being few and having limited means, fruits of work arise, embodied in some consecrated people. “For now there are little, it is true. But what we have are ‘Chapó’, of the best,” presumes the head of the Gypsy Pastoral.

Among them cites Fr. Juan Cortés, priest in Barcelona; to Fr. Antonio Heredia, Claretian; to the religious Belén Carreras Maya and the Permanent Deacon of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza, Agustín Gabarre.

For Rodríguez, these people are characterized by being, above all, “Catholics and, then, gypsies with capital letters” and are considered among the gypsies “like our patriarchs, our passionate referents to follow Christ.”

“The gypsies are proud. They do a job quietly, but where they work they are recognized,” he adds convinced.