VATICAN CITY, MAR. 11, 2001 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II made a heartrending appeal today for an end to the «perverse logic» of terrorism in Spain.
On the day he beatified 233 martyrs of the 1936-1939 Spanish religious persecution, the Pope said, «I wish to entrust to the intercession of the new blessed an intention that you carry deeply embedded in your hearts: the end of terrorism in Spain.»
Two days earlier, Spain was shaken by the latest killing of the ETA terrorist group. On Friday, the group murdered Inaki Totorika Vega, 25, a member of the Basque autonomous police.
«Over several decades, you have been tried by horrendous violence and a series of murders, which have caused numerous victims and great suffering,» the Pope said in his Mass homily. «At the root of such lamentable events is a perverse logic that must be denounced.»
«Terrorism is born of hatred and feeds it in turn; it is radically unjust and increases unjust situations, because it gravely offends God and the dignity and rights of persons,» he added. «With terror, man is always the loser! No reason, no cause or ideology can justify it. Only peace builds up peoples. Terror is the enemy of humanity.»
Since 1968, attacks by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Basque separatist group, have left 800 people dead.
