The El Rocío Pilgrimage: Spirit and Truth

Storming the fence at the
El Rocío chapel

In this morning’s RNE news broadcast, José Ramón Lucas, the presenter, connected live with the village of El Rocío and, after describing the “jumping of the fence” by the Rocío devotees and their rush into the chapel where the image of the Virgin is kept, Lucas spoke of a state of “ecstasy, almost mystical.” I have heard this same admiring tone used by radio and television journalists from all kinds of media outlets.

Shiite procession
in Pakistan

To speak of collective ecstasy may perhaps be appropriate, but nothing could be further removed from mysticism than this noisy and massive outburst of unbridled passions. I see more fetishism and fanaticism in these rites, with their deep pagan roots, than inward, spiritual, reflective religiosity, and still less mysticism. How far removed from all this is the harsh, solitary, silent, and withdrawn path followed by John of the Cross or Teresa of Ávila, with the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways that leave no room for such childish and worldly emotional outpourings. Power — the Inquisition — never ceased threatening their heterodoxy.

It seems that almost all the media, with exceptions as honorable as they are rare, conform to an editorial line characterized by three features: 1. Encouraging an attitude of generalized stupidity that leaves no room for calm reflection; 2. Narrowing the focus of what is considered newsworthy to parameters as restrictive as they are subject to spurious economic and political interests, thereby impoverishing perceived reality; and 3. Failing to examine critically or question any social phenomenon that enjoys the approval of those in power.

As an atheist, these scenes deeply unsettle me, for they take us back to our most remote tribal past: episodes of irrational collective fusion that dissolve the individual into a mass capable of dragging him toward uncontrollable acts — a ritual in this case, but also a lynching or an assault on the U.S. Capitol. Yet I imagine they also provoke rejection in believers committed to an evangelical Christianity and who defend a form of religiosity in line with what the Holy Scriptures clearly indicate. And in this respect, the old and the new alike are in agreement: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God” (Jerusalem Bible: Exodus 20:4–6). As for the New Testament, Jesus’ conversation with the cheerful Samaritan woman leaves no room for doubt: “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her: “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (...) True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Gospel of John 4:24).

Despite all these written words, Catholicism — Spanish Catholicism at least — is today the most fetishistic religion among all those swarming across old Europe.

Dissenting voices exist both within and, of course, outside Catholicism, but no one dares give them coverage. For those who govern, a docile people, lulled to sleep by these spectacles, are easier to rule; and for the clergy, they provide an excellent excuse for setting up little rackets and for keeping the faithful from engaging in the reflection and transformative praxis that a committed Christianity demands — and which has so greatly disturbed, and continues to disturb, those in power.

So let journalists, politicians, and clergymen remain settled in what they now call their “comfort zone,” and let them continue “highlighting the value” (an expression as hackneyed as it is odious) of these folk spectacles that generate handsome profits for some and others — especially for the sacrosanct and misleadingly named tourism industry. The rest of us shall remain watchful, vigilant, and powerless, awaiting the fatal outcome to which these social disorders, encouraged by a generalized abandonment of principles worthy of the name, have led in our recent history.

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