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MÁLAGA, Spain (ChurchMilitant.com) - Three feminists are facing criminal charges in Spain for a blasphemous public mockery of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At a labor rally put together by the General Workers' Confederation (CGT) on Spain's Worker's Day holiday in 2014, the women marched along carrying a prominent depiction of the female anatomy made of plastic as if it were the Holy Mother of God. Moreover, the ideological agitators were dressed up as pious Catholics, or else a parody of such, in a fashion intended to ape the Holy Week processions held annually in the country.

The protesters also reportedly carried a coffin meant to stand for the "death" of workers' rights.

The leader of the CGT, Miguel Sevillano, stressed to local media that the women responsible had "nothing to do" with his group. He said they were members of a separate feminist organization. The CGT, affirms Sevillano, is concerned strictly with workers' rights, not insulting the Catholic Church or its saints.

The women have now been ordered to court in February of next year, facing charges of "crimes against religious sentiment."

A similar event apparently happened in the same city a couple months prior to this one, in March on International Women's Day. That event reportedly featured a different construction of the same image, though there are no reports of charges in that case.

Father John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary defines blasphemy as "[s]peaking against God in a contemptuous, scornful, or abusive manner." It adds: "Serious contemptuous ridicule of the saints, sacred objects, or of persons consecrated to God is also blasphemous because God is indirectly attacked."

Just last month, a Spanish artist made headlines for his own gravely sacrilegious "art" display, in which he flaunted his theft of 240 consecrated Hosts — with which he proceeded to spell out "pederasty" (i.e., "love" between a man and boy) on the city's public grounds.

To learn about the importance of the Virgin Mary in Catholic teaching, see the "Queen of Heaven" section of our Premium program "Basic Training," or Season 8 of "The One True Faith."

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