Free Republic

A new $5 million Anglican Centre is to be built in Spain in Santiago de Compostela, the end of the world-famous Catholic pilgrimage route the Way of St James. The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain, which is part of the Anglican Community under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to begin fundraising with the help of Trinity Church, Wall Street in the United States. The new Anglican centre in Spain will have instant and enormous appeal to Christians from through the Anglican Communion worldwide. Santiago de Compostela is believed to be the burial site of the disciple James,...

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA – For centuries, Catholic pilgrims made this sacred journey across Spain for heavenly rewards. This summer, the throngs arriving in Santiago de Compostela have found more-immediate gratification: concerts by Lou Reed, The Cure, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Welcome to Xacobeo, the festival honoring the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which finishes here in the rolling green hills of northwestern Spain. Once the domain of devout Catholics, the 420-mile trek across the country to honor the Apostle James has been transformed into a pop-culture spectacle. Jenna Bush did it. So did the Queen of Spain. Even...

Church to remove Moor-slayer saint A statue in a Spanish cathedral showing St James slicing the heads off Moorish invaders is to be removed to avoid causing offence to Muslims. Cathedral authorities in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, on Spain's north west coast, plan to move the statue to the museum. Among the reasons for the move is to avoid upsetting the "sensitivities of other ethnic groups". The statue of St James "the Moor-slayer" is expected to be replaced by one depicting the calmer image of St James "the Pilgrim", by the same 18th century artist, Jose Gambino....

COTABATO CITY PHILIPPINES— Lawmen uprooted thousands of full grown marijuana plants in Central Mindanao yesterday, the second haul in four days. South Cotabato’s provincial police discovered the marijuana farm in Barangay Katol, a hinterland town in Tiboli, South Cotabato, with the help of local officials and religious leaders. The alleged owner of the prohibited plants, a certain Sinulim Gawad, eluded arrest after sensing that policemen, backed by civilian volunteers, have started surrounding his farm. The uprooting of marijuana plants in Tiboli came less than a week after operatives of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police burned some P20...