José Andrés Calderón has been fined a total of 3,600 euros for praying with others the rosary in public in Madrid.
He began the peaceful rosary on the steps of the Inmaculado Corazón de María church in November, during a period of national unrest. The site is a short distance from the headquarters of the ruling Socialist Workers' Party.
Up to 500 people had been meeting regularly until the regime banned the regular rosaries on 27 November. After that the number of participants increased. Some people were arrested and fined. A video of a 60-year-old woman being pushed into a police van was widely circulated online.
A lawyer challenged the ban as a violation of the right to assembly. In December, the Madrid Provincial Court rejected the appeal. People continued to pray.
José Andrés Calderón, the organiser of the event, announced on 15 May that he had been fined 1,200 euros for the third time: "Praying the Rosary is expensive in Spain," he commented.
That same evening he was in the streets …More