Iglesia católica

Iglesia católica appears in the investigation as both a long-established religious institution and one point of reference in a valley where Christian practice has mingled with older beliefs. The narrative links its history to the Inquisition, its present-day religious work to exorcism, and its investigative interest to cases involving unexplained evil. It does not establish that the institution directs the secret groups under investigation; instead, its presence helps frame the conflict between religious authority, inherited local traditions, and Amaia Salazar’s demand for evidence.

Historical presence and older beliefs

Sarasola describes Christianity as deeply established in Baztán, but not as having displaced the region’s earlier customs. In his account, Christian belief became entangled with practices rooted in the valley’s pre-Christian past. That history matters to the investigation because the boundary between Christian religion and local magic is presented not as a clean division, but as a long and uneasy coexistence.

He invokes the work of the inquisitor Salazar y Frías, who investigated alleged demonic activity in the valley and across the French border during the period of witch trials. Sarasola characterizes him as an open-minded investigator who lived among the people he studied and tested what he learned. At the same time, he acknowledges the fear produced by the Inquisition and the confessions extracted under torture. The account therefore holds two facts together: Salazar y Frías sought to end a wave of persecution, yet the historical record of the period also contains unresolved reports of crimes against children and young women, including the later disappearance of bodies. Those reports were dismissed wholesale after the practices of the Inquisition were exposed as abusive.

This history gives the Church a complicated place in the novel’s treatment of belief. Its authority helped shape the valley’s religious life, but the institutions associated with that authority also affected which testimony counted as credible. The old records cannot simply be treated as proof of witchcraft, nor can their dismissal erase the unresolved claims they contain.

Belief, ritual, and the present investigation

When Amaia asks whether the events in Arizkun and the attempted attack in the cave connect to historical witchcraft, Sarasola argues that the question cannot be settled by treating scientific plausibility as the sole measure of consequence. His point is not that every supernatural claim is thereby proven. Rather, he insists that beliefs can have tangible effects because people organize their lives around them and may act, or risk their lives, in their name. This becomes a challenge to Amaia’s investigative frame: understanding a ritual requires examining what its participants believe it does, as well as what can be verified about their actions.

Sarasola also distinguishes witchcraft from Satanism. In his explanation, the use of human remains in religious or magical practices does not always aim to insult God, and sacred places may be violated for ritual purposes. He connects the Arizkun profanations to Baztán’s history of witchcraft and to accounts of ceremonies invoking Aker. The distinction prevents the investigation from reducing every occult practice to a single anti-Christian motive, while placing Iglesia católica’s religious framework beside, rather than in control of, the beliefs being investigated.

The secret groups Amaia investigates are described as drawing on older traditions and ritual sacrifice, not as branches of Iglesia católica. Their members’ accounts invoke a local spiritual order in which offerings are believed to secure favors and actions carry consequences across time. That contrast gives the Church’s presence a contextual role: it represents an established religious tradition in the same landscape where alternative systems of belief claim their own histories, authorities, and demands.

Exorcism and pastoral practice

Sarasola’s account of exorcism offers a contemporary example of how Iglesia católica responds to claims of possession. He says that several priests celebrate an exorcism Mass in Rome each morning and then receive people seeking help. Many cases are referred for psychiatric consultation, he explains, but not all. The detail complicates a simple opposition between religious practice and medical explanation: the Church’s response, as he presents it, includes both ritual and referral, without treating every case as identical.

When Amaia suggests that exorcism might work as a placebo for people who believe themselves possessed, Sarasola redirects attention to the power the experience holds for those involved. His emphasis is on effects and on the limits of dismissing a person’s framework before understanding it. The scene does not supply independent confirmation of possession; it shows how a priest’s religious perspective enters a police inquiry whose central questions remain evidentiary.

Institutional interest and narrative significance

Iglesia católica also appears through the Vatican’s interest in the case of Doctor Berasategui. After his arrest in connection with Rosario’s release and the crimes known as the Tarttalo cases, high-ranking Vatican authorities took an interest. Sarasola explains that psychiatry can bring investigators into contact with cases involving a particular dimension of evil that the Church has pursued since its foundation. The evidence establishes institutional attention to Berasategui’s work, but does not show that the Church possessed his encrypted files or controlled the investigation.

Across these episodes, Iglesia católica supplies neither a definitive supernatural explanation nor a simple rational counterweight. Its history carries the legacy of the Inquisition and the contested status of old testimony; its present-day practices include exorcism and psychiatric referral; and its representatives argue that belief can produce real consequences even when its claims remain disputed. The institution’s narrative significance lies in this unresolved boundary. It gives Amaia a framework she can question, but also presses her to distinguish between proving a supernatural claim and understanding the human actions undertaken in its name.