Leftist groups take over churches to organise multi-day lock-ins in support of Palestine

 The leftist movement 'Solidarity Lock-ins for Life in Palestine' has been organizing lock-ins in various Spanish cities for several weeks to demand peace in Gaza.

Among the guidelines that this group offers to the different groups that want to organize these lock-ins, they recommend using some public space that is viable for the lock-in and they talk about doing it at City Hall, citizen participation center, educational center, university or in churches.

The last lock-in of this group took place in the Saint Píus X parish of Santander and had the express authorization and collaboration of the parish priest. Nearly 80 people have settled in this church for three days to ask for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The parish priest of the church, Avelino Seco, who is also participating in this lock-in, has indicated that it was a "very good idea" for this event to be held in his church because it is "very important to raise our voices against war and death of children.

Seco has shown himself "delighted" to give up the parish and be with the participants in this protest act. "It seems to me to be a totally necessary initiative, and thus we are not indifferent to the war," he said.

In Santander, this lock-in has had the express support of the socialist youth of Cantabria.

Lock-ins in churches in Granada and Úbeda

The case of Santander is just the latest of these lock-ins that are occurring throughout Spain with the complicity of the clergy and episcopal silence. They use churches for political purposes supported by the left, which may be the only time in their life they have set foot in a church.

On April 24 and 25, a few elderly people also decided to lock themselves "in solidarity" in the church of San Lorenzo in Úbeda. This lock-in also had the support of the communists of Sumar Jaén, the party of Vice President Yolanda Díaz.

Another similar lock-in - with low attendance and a high average age - took place at the beginning of April in the parish hall of the Santa Catalina church, in Loja, Granada.

Source