Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete

Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete (* 1932 in Spain ) is a Spanish Benedictine monk and former abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in the Valley of the Fallen . He also worked as a professor.

Career

Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in the Valley of the Fallen (2008)

Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete holds a degree in social sciences from the University of Salamanca , the oldest university in Spain. He attended the seminar in Madrid and was a novice in the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos , a Benedictine monastery in the town of the same name, which is located in the south of the northern Spanish province of Burgos . After his ordination , he first served in the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos and later in Madrid. He was professor of the history of medieval spirituality in Madrid at the Pontifical University of Comillas . In 1958 he left Madrid with other monks and the abbot Justo Pérez de Urbel to the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in the Valley of the Fallen ( Spanish : Abadía Benedictina de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos ) at Cuelgamuros near El Escorial in the Sierra de Guadarrama in Spain. Today the place is known worldwide for the monument Valle de los Caídos - a mausoleum that houses the tombs of the dictator Francisco Franco and the founder of the Falange fascist movement , José Antonio Primo de Rivera . The Benedictine abbey is part of the huge complex, which is visited annually by around 400,000 tourists, including numerous supporters of the Franco regime and the Falange. Father Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete was a librarian and archivist, but also worked as a professor of ethics , theological anthropology and sociology . In 2004 he was elected by the monks as the new abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in the Valley of the Fallen and confirmed by Pope John Paul II . According to the teaching of St. Benedict , an abbot of a Benedictine monastery must be a “father, shepherd, teacher and doctor who guides the souls of monks in search of God.” Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete served as abbot for about ten years he then resigned from his post at the age of 82 due to health problems. Since no consensus could be formed among the 25 monks in the Benedictine abbey regarding the choice of his successor, Father Santiago Cantera Montenegro was appointed prior administrator on September 20, 2014 . In most cases the prior administrator is later elected abbot. The ceremony was chaired by Dom Philippe Dupont, Abbot-Chairman of the Congrégation de Solesmes , to which the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in the Valley of the Fallen belongs.

Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete is deeply conservative, both theologically and politically. He is a supporter of Franquism . In an interview with Swedish journalists as part of the Spanish documentary Mari Carmen España - el final del silencio, Álvarez put the crimes of Franco into perspective and described the findings gained through current investigations that Franco's supporters murdered over 200,000 people as a "complete lie".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Alfa y Omega (PDF document), Semanario Católico de Información, No. 409/1-VII-2004, p. 22
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} José Manuel Vidal: Anselmo Álvarez Navarrete renuncia como abad del Valle de los Caídos por enfermedad , periodistadigital.com, September 26, 2014
3. ↑ Abadía de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos , valledeloscaidos.es
4. ↑ Sören Meschede: The cross with Franco . In: FAZ am Sonntag . November 19, 2006, p. V3 .
5. ↑ Interview with Anselmo Álvarez as part of the documentation Mari Carmen España - el final del silencio , on youtube.com. Retrieved October 30, 2017.