At a time when it's easier to stay quiet than talk and many people look the other way just in case, it's remarkable that voices from Montserrat abbey should come through so loud and that its monks shouldn't feel intimidated by political power. For the second time in just over five months, the homily of the monastery's midday mass was used to sound from the pulpit uncomfortable words for the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy and its political authorities. Like, for example, the injustice that "part of the legitimate government of Catalonia is in prison" or "the injustice that social leaders and politicians find themselves in pretrial detention, accused of the crimes of rebellion and sedition when Amnesty International has called for their release".
On 24th September last year, father Sergi d'Assís Gelpí said loud and clear in his homily that they had to say no to repression and yes to freedom and respect for the most fundamental rights and criticised the scorn for the Catalan institutions by the Spanish government. This time it was another monk, father Josep Miquel Bausset, master of novices at the monastery, who has referred to the release of the four prisoners in Estremera (Junqueras and Forn) and Soto del Real (Sànchez and Cuixart) prisons and who has denounced the Spanish state's repressive policies and censorship in its fight against the pro-independence "process".
At a time of division between the pro-independence parties (or, who knows, a break), voices like those of father Gelpí and Bausset have much more importance than at other time, because they do nothing but emphasise the poor role of the political class, too busy waiting for the next time their opponent trips and on those in their own ranks or who share their objective. As Voltaire said: "God, defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies".
We'll see if this week now starting with the new parliamentary negotiations to designate a candidate for president of Catalonia reminds us a lot or a little of Voltaire.