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Baptism of State for Leonor
The Infanta receives the sacrament before the representatives of three power
MARIÁNGEL ALCÁZAR - 15/01/2006
Madrid
In arms of her mother, the princess of Asturias, with the Kings like godfathers and without spilling not even an alone tear, the infanta Leonor received yesterday the baptismal waters in a ceremony, of familiar character, but with institutional presence informed in the palace of the Zarzuela. The baptism of the girl, placed in the second place of the successor order to the Wreath, there was informed by the cardinal archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, who on having spilt on her head the blessed water imposed Leonor de Todos Los Santos name . At the ceremony the royal family was present in plenary session and the representatives of the high institutions of the State headed by the prime minister, Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The ceremony allowed for the first time, from the wedding of the Princes, to return to assemble the relatives of don Felipe and dona Letizia.
The representatives' presence of three power of the State - executive, legislative and judicial - made concrete in an official photo of high symbolic value, in which there appear the princes of Asturias and the infanta Leonor together with the prime minister, Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; that of the Congress, Manuel Marín; that of the Senate, Javier Rojo; the chairwoman of the Constitutional Court, Maria Emilia Casas, and that of the General Council of the Judicial Power, Francisco Jose Hernando.
The image, which there took the official photographer of the House of the King little before the baptism, can be qualified of historical since the links of the Wreath had never taken form of a photography with the power of the State. Though in many occasions the King has been photographed together with the representatives of the high institutions, there had never been obtained an official photo similar to the one that yesterday took in the Zarzuela.
The institutional representation, nevertheless, did not concern the formal development of the ceremony of the baptism, which was sober and of familiar character, very similar to those who were informed in the Zarzuela on the occasion of the baptisms of the children of the infantas dona Elenas and dona Cristina.
The celebration of the baptism began with a photographic session that took place in the lounge of hearings of the palace of the Zarzuela and in the one that the direct relatives of the girl put: parents, grandparents, great-grandfathers and uncles.
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Since it is habitual, for a few years, in the catholic baptisms, she was the mother and not the godmother who brought the girl over to the baptismal sink while the officiant was asking the parents and the godfathers if they were promising to educate the neófita in the catholic fe. The infanta Leonor, very calm during the whole morning, scarcely altered when monsignor Rouco Varela spilt the blessed water, of the Jordan, on her head.
The officiant imposed on the girl the name Leonor de todos los Santos , breaking thereby with a tradition of the royal family and of the catholic Church that allows to include in the record of the baptism an indeterminate number of names with those who normally were remembered to the relatives or the saint of the day was honored.
After the rite of the baptism, the Princes prayed before the image of the Vírgen arranged to the effect, while a nuns' choir was intoning religious compositions.
With regard to the religious character of the celebration, IU side it expressed yesterday a communique in which it was criticizing that " a private act ", as the baptism of the Infanta Leonor, had turned " into a ceremony of State " that, according to the mentioned political formation, " does not respect the constitutional separation between Church and State ".
The formation that Gaspar Llamazares directs also expressed the " respect towards the private decision " of the Princes of Asturias of baptizing their daughter following the rites of the catholic religion.
After the ceremony of the baptism of the infanta Leonor de Borbón, the Kings offered a banquet to the guests.
