Madrid - A decades-old row over whether crucifixes should be
displayed in public buildings in a non-confessional state has erupted
again in Spain.
The recurrence of the 'war of the crucifix' was seen by many
analysts as partly reflecting a certain indecisiveness of the
authorities caught between Spain's traditionally Catholic identity
and an increasingly secular society.
When a court in the northern city of Valladolid recently endorsed
a group of parents requesting that crucifixes be removed from
their children's school, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero's Socialist government appeared at a loss.
Education Minister Mercedes Cabrera said every school should
decide individually whether to have crucifixes on its walls.
Yet Justice Minister Mariano Fernandez Bermejo urged the
Valladolid authorities to obey the court, and the Socialist Party
parliamentary group backed the removal of religious symbols from
public institutions.
Traditionally, Spain has been one of the world's most staunchly
Catholic countries.
Yet the church has steadily lost influence in an
increasingly liberal society which no longer identifies with the
sexual morals recommended by the Vatican and where immigration is
spreading Islam and Protestantism.
Forty-six per cent of young Spaniards now consider themselves as
agnostics, atheists or as indifferent to religion, according to a
2005 poll.
Nearly 80 per cent of Spaniards still regard themselves officially
as Catholics, but less than 30 per cent of the Catholics practise the
religion outside social events such as baptisms and weddings.
Zapatero's social reforms over the past five years placed the
government on a collision course with the church, which slammed
homosexual marriage, easier divorce and downgrading Catholic
education in schools.
The conflict was deepened by the traditional opposition in Spain
between the anti-clerical left and the church, which supported the
right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who ruled from
1939 to 1975.
Today's conservative politicians, however, have given only
hesitant backing to the church's views, aware that fully adopting
them could alienate many voters.
The election of highly conservative Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco
to head the bishops' conference has reportedly contributed to
the increase of acts of apostasy.
More than 500 Spaniards informed the church that they wanted to
renounce the Catholic religion in the first half of this year, up
from 287 during all of 2007.
Despite such developments, the Socialists remain aware of
the church's continuing influence, and have hesitated to comply with
their earlier pledges of working towards the complete separation of
church and state.
The church continues to receive billions of euros directly or
indirectly from state coffers, government ministers swear their oaths
of office on a Bible, and victims of accidents or terrorist attacks
are given Catholic collective funeral masses.
Such practices are deemed offensive by Spain's more than a million
Muslims, most of whom are immigrants from Morocco and other
countries, and some half a million Protestants, whose ranks have been
swollen by immigrants from Latin America.
About 20,000 Spaniards convert annually to religions other than
Catholicism, according to a figure quoted by the daily El Pais.
The Vatican itself is trying to adapt its arguments in defence of
Catholicism to a changing world, reacting to the Spanish row over
crucifixes with talk about 'identity' and 'culture' rather than
faith.
'Beyond theological or religious arguments,' the crucifix was 'one
of the fundamental symbols containing the pain of humanity,' Vatican
representative Gianfranco Ravasi said.
lanceDec 4th, 2008 - 01:22:14
Give them the choice between the crucifix or the koran and they will soon become secular.
Nothing scares the hell out of christians like a good koran. They will run to neutrality fast so as not to be perceived as religious bigots. Or they will become polarized and start mass killing pagans and in a fit of Puritanism eliminate themselves.
Or something nearly similar to that. Choices confuse the simple minded bigots. They don't know whether to deny their own bigotry or to confront it head on and start slaughtering anyone that is different.
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