(LifeSiteNews) — Sentencing for a Spanish priest who this past week was found guilty of making “Islamophobic” comments more than seven years ago has Catholics as well as free speech advocates concerned. In February, Father Custodio Ballester was summoned by a regional court in Spain to respond to charges that he had committed a “hate crime” for calling attention to the unjust treatment Christians receive in Islamic majority countries. Ballester, who serves as a parish priest in Barcelona, was charged with violating Spanish law in 2020 when the state prosecutor in Catalonia claimed that an article Ballester wrote in 2016 titled “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam” met the criteria of a “hate crime.” Ballester wrote his essay in response to a pastoral letter by his superior, the archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Juan José Omella, titled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.” In his rebuttal, Ballester wrote: “This new reactivation of Christian-Muslim dialogue, paralyzed by the …