The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid confirmed the ban on the Ferraz Rosary, in which Spain and the entire world are prayed for, and imposed a new fine of 500 euros.
The Tenth Section of the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid issued a ruling on July 1 in which it rejected the appeal presented by José Andrés Calderón, organizer of Rosario de Ferraz, on June 25 against the Delegation of Madrid, which has confirmed the prohibition of prayer for this Monday, July 1 and Tuesday, July 2.
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The Ferraz Rosary is a call to pray the Marian prayer for the conversion of Spain and the entire world that has been carried out since November 12, 2023 on the steps of the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary every afternoon from 7:30 p.m. 8:00 p.m. (local time).
Although the ruling states that “no appeal can be filed against this resolution and it is final,” Calderón told ACI Prensa that they will appeal it before the Constitutional Court and, if applicable, before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (France).
The organizer of Rosario de Ferraz also explained to ACI Prensa that “the jurisprudence presented by the Madrid court” regarding freedom of assembly “is outdated and not updated.”
He also specified that those who pray in Ferraz “for 234 days” do not block streets or cause disturbances in public order, a reason that could be given, if it were the case, to prohibit prayer.
Despite everything and even though he may be arrested or fined again, Calderón told ACI Prensa that they will continue meeting to pray the Rosary.
Calderón had already been fined 600 euros by the Madrid Government Delegation, alleging a minor administrative infraction, pointing to Calderón’s final words and some small disturbances that occurred minutes later on a past occasion.
Deadlines for authorization to pray the Rosary
José Andrés Calderón repeatedly sends communications for the public prayer of the Rosary which, under general conditions, must be carried out with a minimum notice period of 10 days.
However, the messages referring to July 1 and 2 invoke urgency because they were held with less notice, in the following terms: “The immediate reason for this demonstration—and the previous ones—is the process of disintegration of the “Catholic faith in a Spain that believes less and less in God.”
The Government Delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín Aguirre, considered that “this fact does not constitute an extraordinary and serious cause that justifies said urgency and that would make possible, where appropriate, the exception of the ordinary communication period established by law.”
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.