MADRID (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal José Cobo Cano of Madrid, Spain, signed a secret agreement allowing the Spanish government to transform parts of Madrid’s Valle de los Caídos basilica for political and ideological use, a new report reveals.

According to Spanish newspaper El Debate, on March 4 and 5, 2025, Cardinal José Cobo Cano signed a secret agreement with Minister Félix Bolaños on the future of the Valle de los Caídos in Madrid without involving the Benedictine community responsible for the basilica, the Spanish Episcopal Conference, or the Holy See.

“Inside the Basilica, only the area occupied by the altar and the adjacent pews will be preserved as a space for worship,” the recently unearthed agreement states. “The rest of the interior spaces of the basilica (the vestibule, atrium, unoccupied nave, and dome) are not intended for worship and may be subject to artistic and museographic interventions for the purpose of reinterpretation,” including the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

The agreement was made a month and a half before the Spanish government announced the call for ideas to “reinterpret” the basilica, thereby contradicting the cardinal, who had assured that his role was merely to “accompany” the process. The documents were published on January 20, 2026, by El Debate and have become central in legal challenges over the government’s architectural competition for the site’s “redesign.”

The Valle de los Caídos is a vast monumental complex built during Francisco Franco’s governance, located just outside Madrid. Conceived as a memorial to the “pacification” after the Spanish Civil War, it has long been regarded as a symbol of Francoism. The site includes a basilica carved into the rock and entrusted to the Benedictines, a monumental cross, and a cemetery containing the remains of fallen soldiers from both sides of the conflict.

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The basilica of the Valle is a minor basilica under pontifical right, as established by Pope John XXIII in the Apostolic Letter Salutiferae Crucis on April 7, 1960. In that document, the pope states that “any act to the contrary shall be considered null and void, should anyone, with whatever authority, knowingly or unknowingly, attempt to act in a manner that deviates from what is established.”

The dispute over the redesign of the Valle de los Caídos stems from the leftist Spanish government’s attempt to turn the site into a museum‑style center in accordance with the country’s “Democratic Memory Law,” effectively reducing its sacred character. The project has sparked wide debate in Spain, because it constitutes state interference in a pontifical basilica. The controversy centers on defending the inviolability of the Church, religious freedom, and respect for agreements with the Holy See – principles seen as under threat by political and ideological interventions inside the sacred building.

The letters of agreement surfaced during the appeal process brought by the Benedictines against the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez. The government submitted the documents as evidence to claim that the Church supports the plan to reassign the function of the basilica.

However, the publication of the letters places both the government and the Archdiocese of Madrid in a more difficult position: The Archbishop of Madrid has no jurisdiction over the church of the Valle, which, as a minor basilica, depends directly on the Pope by virtue of its status under pontifical right. By signing the agreement, Cobo Cano would have given the Spanish government a legal cover that did not exist, creating the appearance of an authorization he had no power to grant.

The agreement is considered problematic both in terms of the accords between the Church and the Spanish state and from the standpoint of canon law. According to the former, the document violates the legal framework established by the 1979 Agreements, which guarantee the Church’s autonomy in the management of places of worship and limit state interference in ecclesial matters. According to the latter, the agreement would also be canonically invalid, not only because the basilica is under pontifical right, but also because a church dedicated to worship cannot be “fragmented” into sacred and profane areas within the same building (cf. can. 1210 and 1214). Any possible reduction to profane use applies to the entire building, not to individual sections (can. 1222).

At the November 2025 plenary assembly of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, the bishops stated that they were unaware of the contents of the agreement and directed journalists to speak directly with Cobo Cano. “We did not participate, not even as silent bystanders, and anything you wish to know about this matter, discuss it directly with Cardinal Cobo,” declared their secretary‑general and spokesperson, Auxiliary Bishop of Toledo César García Magán.

The Spanish‑language Catholic outlet InfoVaticana has openly questioned Cdl. Cobo Cano’s suitability to lead the Archdiocese of Madrid, in light of his role in the management of the Valley of the Fallen and the manner in which he has exercised ecclesial authority in recent years.

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Cobo Cano is known as a progressive and modernist Church leader, a loyal figure of the Francis era, and described by several analysts as even more “progressive leaning” than the late pope. He is known not only for having shown “obedience and support” to the declaration Fiducia Supplicans and for having reprimanded the priests in his diocese who opposed the document, but also for his strong advocacy of the “synodal transformation” of the Spanish Church.

Like Cardinals Mattero Zuppi and Jean-Marc Aveline, Cobo Cano is close to the ecumenism-focused Sant’Egidio Community and, like them, maintains that the Church’s loss of sociological influence is an “opportunity,” and that the Church should not be seen as a “service provider” for sacraments, but as a place that “offers meaning.”

Cobo Cano is also among the authors of the controversial report produced by Study Group 4 of the Synod on Synodality, established by Pope Francis and focused on priestly formation. The report argues that greater weight should be given to the laity – especially women – not only in formation, but also in the admission of candidates to Holy Orders.