La Soledad del Paso Negro marks 50 years surrounded by brotherhood members from all over Spain

The image of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad del Paso Negro reaches half a century. Huércal-Overa opened this Saturday, November 7, the events of the 50th anniversary of the carving with the 51st National Gathering of Brotherhoods and Confraternities of the Soledad, which has brought together in the municipality brotherhood members from different parts of Spain. The anniversary commemorates the arrival in 1976 of the image, the work of the Murcian sculptor José María Sánchez Lozano. The event continues this Sunday, November 8, with a programme that starts at 8:00 with the collection of credentials and the welcome breakfast at the Teatro Villa. At 9:00 the transfer of the Virgin to the Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is scheduled and at 10:00 the Solemn Eucharist is celebrated, presided over by the bishop of Almería, monseñor Antonio Gómez Cantero. At 11:30 the III Youth Gathering «Jóvenes de la Soledad» will take place and the meeting will conclude at 14:00 with a fellowship meal, at which the handover to the venue of the LII National Gathering will be made.

After the inauguration at the Teatro Villa, the lectures «La religiosidad popular como expresión de fe», by the bishop of Getafe, monseñor Ginés García Beltrán, and «La devoción a Nuestra Señora de la Soledad en Huércal-Overa y su Campo», by the historian and municipal archivist José Luis Cuadrado Beltrán, were held. At 11:30 a concert by the Asociación Musical Martín Alonso was scheduled and in the afternoon, at 17:00, the extraordinary departure of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the image. The mayor, Domingo Fernández, has stated that «today Huércal-Overa hosts this meeting of sacred art and Holy Week» and has congratulated Paso Negro for the organisation of these events. The president of the Diputación de Almería, José Antonio García Alcaina, has stressed that Paso Negro «is the oldest passion brotherhood in Almería». The inaugural table also included the president and sister superior of Paso Negro, Blanca López, and the parish priest Francisco Gerónimo, as reported by the Diputación.