The monastery of La Santa Espina (Valladolid) hosted a solemn Eucharistic act of reparation after the profanation of the tabernacle that occurred in the afternoon of Sunday, December 28, when some unknown individuals forced the tabernacle and stole the Sacred Hosts that were inside it.
According to the available information, there were no thefts of liturgical objects or material damage in other areas of the monastery. The action was directed exclusively against the Most Blessed Sacrament, which the Church considers an act of special gravity.
After the incident, Francisco Casas, parish priest of La Santa Espina and Castromonte, filed a complaint with the Civil Guard and informed the Archbishop of Valladolid. As a pastoral response, a public act of reparation was convened to reaffirm the faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The celebration was presided over by don Luis Argüello, Archbishop of Valladolid and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, who celebrated the Holy Mass and delivered the homily. Numerous priests concelebrated the Eucharist and hundreds of faithful filled the church of the monastery, a temple more than nine centuries old, erected to safeguard a thorn from the Crown of Christ.
During the homily, the archbishop emphasized that what was stolen was not a material good, but the most valuable thing the Church possesses: Christ himself, and recalled that Christian faith cannot be reduced to intellectual knowledge, but must be lived and expressed in respect and adoration of the Eucharist.
The act took place in an atmosphere of prayer, silence, and recollection, and sought to extend the reparation not only to what happened in La Santa Espina, but also to other profanations that occur in a less visible way.