VATICAN CITY - The Vatican staged its largest mass beatification ceremony ever Sunday, putting 498 victims of religious persecution before and during Spain's civil war on the path to possible sainthood.
The ceremony has drawn criticism from some in Spain who see it as implicit criticism of the current Socialist government as it takes a critical look at the country's civil war past and the fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, which was supported by the Roman Catholic Church.
Seventy-one bishops from Spain, a host of Spanish politicians and Spanish pilgrims massed in St. Peter's Square for the ceremony, waving Spanish flags and breaking into applause after Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared the 498 beatified.
Spain's 1936-69 civil war pitted an elected, leftist government against right wing forces that rose up under Franco, who went on to win and presided over a nearly 40-year dictatorship staunchly supported by the Catholic Church.
Violence against clergy had been simmering since 1931, with leftist forces targeting the institution they saw as a symbol of wealth, repression and inequality. Their attacks against the clergy gave Franco a pretext for launching his rebellion.
The church estimates that nearly 7,000 clergy were killed in Spain from 1931 to 1939.
The 498 people beatified on Sunday - who were killed in 1934, 1936 and 1937 - are comprised of two bishops, 24 priests and 462 members of religious orders, as well as a deacon, a subdeacon, a seminary student and seven lay Catholics.
By declaring the 498 martyrs, the Vatican could proceed with beatification without having to confirm a miracle attributed to the intercession of each of the victims. A miracle is necessary for any of them to be declared a saint.
Pope Benedict XVI appeared from his studio window after the Mass to greet the pilgrims, saying the beatification of so many ordinary Catholics showed that martyrdom wasn't reserved to a few but "is a realistic possibility for the entire Christian people."
"This martyrdom in ordinary life is an important witness in today's secularized society," he said.
Some in Spain have questioned the timing of the ceremony, coming three days before Parliament is to pass a Socialist-sponsored law seeking to make symbolic amends to victims of the war and of the Franco dictatorship.
The bill mentions people persecuted for their religious beliefs, but for the most part it is an unprecedented, formal condemnation of the Franco regime.
Critics say the Vatican, which since the late 1980s has beatified nearly 500 other clergy killed in the war, is acting with political motivation and is hitting back at the government by choosing now to beatify nearly another 500 all at once.
The church says the ceremony is being held now because Benedict finished signing the decrees only two months ago.
Ties between the Holy See and Spain have been strained since the Socialists took office in 2004. The government has angered the Vatican by introducing legislation facilitating divorce on demand and gay marriages, as well by scrapping plans by a previous conservative government to make religion an obligatory subject in schools.
Spain also permits abortion.
Saraiva Martins took aim at all those initiatives in his homily Sunday, saying Catholics must defend church teaching on protecting life from conception until natural death - Vatican language for opposing abortion.
Drawing sustained applause from the crowd, he cited the need to protect the family "founded on the sole and indissoluble marriage between a man and woman, on the primary right for parents to educate their children, and on other question that spring up in daily life in the society in which we live."
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