BARCELONA (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Juan José Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona, in an official archdiocesan statement this week criticized the city’s offensive depictions of Maria de la Mercè (Our Lady of Mercy) on posters and videos advertising the upcoming La Mercè Festival, one of the largest festivals in the country.
The July 29 statement emphasized that the promotional materials for the event blatantly mock Our Lady and are offensive to Barcelona’s Catholics, and reminded the faithful of the Catholic origins of the now largely secular festival. Posters and videos advertising the La Mercè Festival, which will take place September 23-28, depict an immodestly dressed woman clearly mimicking Maria de la Mercè, standing on a baroque altarpiece and lewdly dancing alongside what appear to be multiple cross-dressed individuals.
In the background of the promotional video, the “Eye of Horus,” also known as the “all-seeing eye” and the “Eye of Providence,” a pagan symbol that traces its origins to Egyptian mythology and is prominent in Freemasonry and black magic, is clearly visible.
“(T)he official poster (and its video version) of the next edition of the city’s biggest party irreverently uses different religious forms with the intention of ridiculing the image of the Virgin,” the statement said.
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The archdiocese then stressed that the voices of Catholics matter in a democratic government like Spain’s.
“In democracy, the feelings of others must be respected, and this larger party poster violates the feelings of those who worship and respect what the patron saint of this noble city means and its history built around it,” the statement read.
Finally, the statement urged the faithful and entire city of Barcelona to remember the Catholic origins of the festival.
“The Archbishopric of Barcelona wants to remember the religious origin of the major festival in honor of the Virgin of Mercy. This feast and the history of the Order of the Mercy were born in our city, on August 10, 1218, at an event held in the cathedral, which was supported by King James I and Bishop Berenguer de Palou,” the statement said. “That act and the continuity of the work that was born of it remain today an example of the fruitfulness of Marian piety in favor of our people, and especially of its most vulnerable and poorest sectors.”
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The La Mercè Festival is celebrated each year for about a week, coinciding with the feast of Maria de la Mercè, the patron saint of Barcelona. In 1218, the Blessed Mother under the title of “Our Lady of Mercy” appeared to Saints Peter Nolasco and Raymund of Penafort, as well as King James of Aragon, asking them to start a religious order dedicated to freeing Christian captives from the Muslims who occupied a large portion of Spain.
As requested, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy was created, and members began collecting alms for ransom and even offering themselves in exchange for Christian prisoners. After her intercession was credited with saving the city from a plague of locusts in 1687, Maria de la Mercè became the official patron saint of Barcelona.
While the festival began as a celebration focused on celebrating the Catholic feast and featured the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and a procession as part of the festivities, the Mass and procession are no longer part of the event’s official program. Instead, the La Mercè Festival features secular music, parades, concerts, and street performances.
VOX Barcelona, a local wing of the conservative nationalist political party VOX, also blasted the festival’s ads and demanded that the city respect the Catholic origins of the celebration.
“VOX demands that the Barcelona City Council respect the Christian origins of the patron saintly feasts of the Virgin of the Merca,” it said in an X post.
🟢🗞️ VOX exige al Ayuntamiento de Barcelona que respete los orígenes cristianos de las fiestas patronales de la Virgen de la Mercè.@gonzalodeoro: “El Ayuntamiento ya es un circo, no necesitamos más payasadas”.https://t.co/TonpwaSlua
— VOX Barcelona Ciudad (@vox_bcnciudad) July 29, 2025
