10th edition of “Sent la creu”
Guillermo Simón Castellví, a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology and of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, and a collaborator of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), shares with the academic community the photo galleries he published in the digital newspaper El Debate on 25 February and 10 March, both set in the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, a temple to which the amateur photographer has devoted particular attention. In fact, Simón Castellví had already shared his recent photo galleries with the academic community, documenting the beginning of the installation of the cross crowning the basilica and the completion of the assembly of its arms.
On this occasion, his focus was on a new edition—the tenth—of “Feel the Cross,” a Eucharistic celebration that seeks to recall the persecution suffered by many Christians around the world today. This time, the spotlight was on Cameroon, with the presence of the Bishop of Yagoua, Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo. As journalist Guillermo Altarriba explains in the accompanying report, the celebration took place on the first Sunday of Lent, as is customary, and featured a white wooden cross symbolising the suffering of Christians in the African country. In previous years, crosses from Lampedusa, Mosul, Cambodia, Bangassou, Venezuela, the Philippines, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Syria had been brought.
“Bishop Yaouda described with stark clarity the situation his people are experiencing: ‘The terrorists entered and the first thing they did was cut the throats of Christians. They also burn homes and fields, and even churches with people inside, so that everyone submits to what they impose.’ However, the bishop also pointed out the paradox experienced in Cameroon: despite persecution, insecurity, fragility and poverty, churches in the country are full. ‘Despite the cross, there is resurrection, and Christians pray, forgive and rebuild because they live with joy,’” Altarriba reports in his chronicle.
The second photo gallery once again documents the construction progress on the temple, with the unveiling of the great cross that has made it the tallest church in Christendom. “After several days of removing the scaffolding that had until now covered it, the radiant cross crowning the Tower of Jesus Christ of the Sagrada Familia can now be seen from all over Barcelona. The six-pointed cross, covered in glass and white enamelled ceramic, measures 17 metres in height and 13.5 metres in width. The scaffolding no longer obstructs the view of the cross crowning the temple designed by Antoni Gaudí, which was completed less than three weeks ago, on 20 February, becoming the highest point on Barcelona’s skyline and the culmination of the tallest church in the world, at 172.5 metres in height, surpassing the 161.53 metres of the spire of Ulm Minster in Germany,” Altarriba explains.
Guillermo Simón Castellví
