Catalonia, the country with the flag blessed by the Pope

BarcelonaPope Leo XIV lands next Tuesday in Catalonia, a country with a strong link to the Holy See since its inception. Relations have had their ups and downs, especially when Catalonia had a voice and vote in the world, with the Catalan kings of the Crown of Aragon. After the disappearance of the Papal States in 1870, the great shift occurred with the Second Vatican Council. The bond, however, also generates a mystery: why does the senyera have the same colors as the flag of the Papal States?

Juanjo Cortés is the president of the Catalan Society of Genealogy, Heraldry, Sigillography, Vexillology, and Nobility. Regarding the fact that the colors are the same, red and yellow, he recalls in conversation with ARA the basis of the thesis that the senyera comes from the papal flag: "the infeudation and marriage of King Peter the Catholic, when he marries in Rome and pledges allegiance to the Pope," and then "it is said that the Pope grants him permission to use the colors red and yellow." This happened in 1204 at the hands of the powerful Innocent III, who officiated the union, but Cortés points out that "the grandfather [of Peter the Catholic] already wore the colors naturally," since the senyera first appears in 1150 as the royal shield of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, who marries Peronella of Aragon. Later, the flag spread to Catalonia and the rest of the territories of the Crown of Aragon. In the Vatican, however, a reform in the 19th century opted for the current white and yellow in the flag.

"Se non è vero, è ben trovato", points out Cortés, as is said in the Vatican, to comment that if something is not true, at least it is very well reasoned. He suggests that it could have been a consolidation of the senyera, a kind of papal blessing for a symbol already existing for more than half a century and which bore its colors. Be that as it may, the dealings were on equal terms with the pontiff, between an important crown in Europe and a politico-religious power. In turn, the flag of the Papal States, created in the 9th century, "already adopted the red and yellow of the Roman emperors, who had adopted them as a symbol against bad omens," according to Cortés. And the papal colors today also appear "in any basilica" with the symbol of an umbrella.

Back and forth

Borja gives to Isabel and Ferran", he synthesizes.

Plot twistCatholic to Isabella and Ferdinand was given by the Borja family", he synthesizes.

Plot twist

With the Papal States abolished in 1870, the Holy See no longer holds such a political role, but it also wants to have good relations with Catholic states. Duran points out that Leo XIII approved Our Lady of Montserrat as the patron saint of Catalonia for the millennium of the discovery of La Moreneta, at the height of Catalanism, but also "puts the Church in modernity" with the encyclical Rerum novarum. "He is a Pope greatly beloved by the open and Catalanist sector, such as [the bishop of Vic] Torras i Bages," he says.

Regarding the Holy See's position on stateless nations, Duran comments that "Leo XIII defends the freedom of peoples, but the reflection on the national issue begins with Pius XI". The encyclical Pacem in terris by John XXIII defends "cultural rights" and language education, while John Paul II supports from the UN the "right to exist" of nations and "the right to one's own language and culture", and the current Pope, Leo XIV, states in Magnifica humanitas that "the promotion of the common good can never be separated from respect for the right of peoples to exist, to safeguard their identity".

However, the paradigm shift was the Second Vatican Council of John XXIII, in 1962: "There is a clear action to open up to national and cultural minorities," comments the UB history professor Giovanni Cattini. Duran also sees it as a clash with Francoism, although it also promotes vernacular languages in liturgy, in addition to preaching, and this favors Catalan.

Impositions

Political clashes have also been recent. "At the end of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, dicasteries of the Holy See sent the Catalan Church insulting directives against Catalan," recounts Duran. And in 1902, Count of Romanones pushed from the Spanish executive an order for catechism to be in Spanish, but de Riquer notes the call to the Holy See's "sensitivity." Catalan influential figures in the Vatican must also be considered: de Riquer mentions Cardinal Josep Vives i Tutó at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but currently there are also some like Father Jordi Bertomeu.

It is true that an important part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Catalonia fraternized with power, as Cattini says, and this explains why Torras i Bages often found himself alone. Also for the defense of preaching in Catalan, which adds to the "Hispanization" with appointments of non-Catalan bishops. "The bishop, who has absolute power and, therefore, the campaign for we want Catalan bishops" is important," opines de Riquer.

In the 16th century, Hispanization reached nearly half of the episcopate until the 17th century, while in the 18th century, after the Nueva Planta decree, it oscillated between 6% and 35% of Catalan bishops; from 1800 to 1825 between 13.3% and 16.6%, while in 1850 there is a jump to two-thirds of bishops born in Catalonia, which falls in 1900 to 45%. In the early years of Francoism the percentage is only 17.6%, while after the era of technocrats it rises again to 72%. A figure that is maintained because currently 70% of bishops in Catalonia are Catalan, even though those who were not born there are also Catalan speakers.

However, after the Nueva Planta Decree, while Catalan is expelled from the bulk of prestigious spheres, "where the language is most constant and stable is in the Church," emphasizes Duran. He refers to the parishes, because in the hierarchy foreigners proliferate. It is not until Francoism that "a break is achieved" with the institution's tradition with the use of Catalan.