NEWS STORY: Catholic Church Stands Against Socialist Tide in Spain

c. 2004 Religion News Service MADRID, Spain _ Brown-eyed Nuria Ramos stood outside this city’s 11th-century San Gines church one recent morning, sounding the warning that Spain’s leftist government was driving the country into a moral abyss. Under one arm, the bubbly Christian youth volunteer cradled a stack of Bible literature. With the other, she […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

MADRID, Spain _ Brown-eyed Nuria Ramos stood outside this city’s 11th-century San Gines church one recent morning, sounding the warning that Spain’s leftist government was driving the country into a moral abyss.

Under one arm, the bubbly Christian youth volunteer cradled a stack of Bible literature. With the other, she tried to hand out white fliers proclaiming the evils of legalizing stem-cell research _ one of many proposals that has put the ruling Socialist Party on a collision course with the country’s once-all-powerful Roman Catholic Church.


Six months after the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero swept into office, Spain is witnessing a profound social and political upheaval. From withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq to shifting the country’s foreign policy focus from the United States to Europe, the 44-year-old leader has wasted no time in breaking from the legacy of his conservative predecessor.

But the most dramatic changes are taking place at home, where a constellation of new initiatives _ from plans to legalize abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research to fast-tracking divorce and ending compulsory Catholic education at school _ may transform Spain from one of Europe’s most conservative countries into one of its most progressive.

“The Socialist Party is trying to destroy the family, destroy our beliefs,” declared 30-year-old Ramos, a member of Madrid’s Heart of Jesus youth group, as sleepy pedestrians and early churchgoers brushed politely past .

“They’re pretending homosexuality is a normal thing. They’re manipulating the Spanish population.”

But last week, Zapatero’s government approved legislation legalizing some forms of stem-cell research. And in early October, it gave the green light to a separate bill to allow same-sex couples to marry and have children.

Socialist deputy Pedro Zerolo expects the leftist-dominated parliament will pass the bill early next year _ making Spain only the third country to legalize gay marriages, after the Netherlands and Belgium.

“We want to show that Spain isn’t just a country that exports ham and wine,” said Zerolo, an openly gay lawmaker who also heads the Spanish chapter of the Federation of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals. “Spain is also a country that exports ideas _ the idea that a more diverse, egalitarian society is possible, regardless of race, sexual orientation and belief.”

A slew of polls indicate strong popular backing for the government’s proposals in majority Catholic Spain _ where, like elsewhere in Europe, church attendance has plummeted in recent years. Surveys show less than one-fifth of Spaniards attend Mass regularly.


Even those who do, like 69-year-old Carmen Rodrigo, believe it’s time Spanish laws reflect the country’s predominately secular mind-set. “I’m Catholic, but I’m in perfect agreement with the Socialist Party,” said the diminutive, white-haired retiree, as she waved Ramos and her literature away but paused to speak to a reporter. “I personally believe marriage should be between a man and a women. But it’s a new world, and we need to adjust to it.”

Not surprisingly, Spain’s Catholic leaders have launched a vigorous counterattack. In July, the country’s leading archbishop, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, declared the Socialist initiatives were taking Spain back to medieval times under Muslim rule.

And last month, Juan Antonio Martinez Campo, spokesman for the country’s conference of bishops, described gay marriage as a “virus” threatening to infiltrate Spanish society.

Since then, the Catholic hierarchy has toned down its rhetoric, opting instead for bookish explanations of its positions on its Web site, and in rare public remarks.

“The church isn’t looking for an ideological victory,” said Leopoldo Vives Soto, secretary for the bishops’ Family and Defense of Life Subcommittee, in a telephone interview. “But there are certain things the church feels are dangers to society _ like abortion, like homosexual marriage. And the church hopes the government will listen to it, in the name of many Catholics.”

Not so long ago, the government would have listened hard to an institution whose influence stretches back centuries. Indeed, Gen. Francisco Franco made the “crusade for God and country” his mantra during his dictatorship, which ended only with his death, in 1975. Franco re-established Catholicism as the state religion and outlawed homosexuality.


The Spanish dictator later moderated many of his positions, which once included closing down Protestant churches and schools, and imprisoning and torturing many gays. But only in 2001 did the Spanish parliament pass a law erasing the criminal records of Franco-era homosexuals, and the country is still coming to grips with Franco’s legacy.

Ties between Spain’s church and state were again strengthened under Spain’s former prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, a devout Catholic. Aznar’s conservative government passed a law making Catholic classes mandatory in public schools, and fought to include a mention of Christianity in the European constitution.

But Spanish society reflects another reality. While abortions are allowed only under strict circumstances, many women invoke a clause allowing the procedure if birth would cause “psychological damage.” Gays are also widely accepted _ indeed, surveys show that two-thirds of Spaniards support legalizing same-sex marriage.

“I can fully understand why the Catholic Church is alarmed,” said Charles Powell, senior analyst at Elcano Royal Institute, a Madrid-based think tank. “It feels it is already losing _ indeed, has already lost _ much of its social influence in Spain over the past 10, 20 years.

“Perhaps it feels it has to make a last stand in the face of these changes, which some devout Catholics will find very difficult to accept,” Powell added.

Spain’s Catholic Church is hardly the only one under siege. Historic bonds cementing religion and state are unraveling across Europe. Neighboring France, where a law banning religious symbols in public schools came into effect this fall, is at the forefront of the secularity drive.


Indeed, the trend is so widespread that it prompted a dire warning from the Vatican on Monday of a “new holy inquisition” against Catholics and other Christian believers.

In Spain, the government has indicated it plans a more fundamental revision of church-state relations, possibly including the several billion dollars in public funds earmarked to the Catholic Church each year.

“This isn’t a war between the church and state,” argued the Socialist Party’s Zerolo, turning back to the topic of gay marriage and other social changes. “The reforms the Socialist Party wants to enact aren’t against anybody. They’re in favor of a better, more modern society.”

KRE/PH END RNS

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