Madrid - Spain's Socialist government Wednesday countered
what the left-leaning press was describing as a Catholic 'offensive'
against its policies two months ahead of the general elections.
It was society and its representatives that had the right to
decide about the 'principles of individual freedom and coexistence,'
while religious confessions had their own internal autonomy, the
Socialist Party said.
The party issued a communique in response to accusations by
several church leaders that policies such as homosexual marriage were
eroding human rights and democracy.
Spain's Catholic Church either had to contest the March 9
elections or to stay out of politics, Socialist Party organizational
secretary Jose Blanco wrote in his blog.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government spoke out
after several bishops accused it of undermining human rights or
democracy at a rally of 160,000 people in Madrid on Sunday.
The church has long been at odds with a government that legalized
homosexual marriage, speedier divorce and stem-cell research.
At the rally in defence of the traditional family on Sunday,
Valencia archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco said that 'radical
secularism' could dissolve democracy.
Madrid cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco accused the government of
eroding human rights by not recognizing the traditional family as the
basic social unit.
Blanco on Tuesday described such accusations as 'extremely
serious,' offensive to Catholic Socialists, and urged the church to
rectify the statements.
Recently, the government also criticized a Tenerife bishop for
equating homosexuality with child molestation.
The government accuses the church of waging an undercover
electoral campaign in favour of the conservative opposition People's
Party (PP).
The PP is hoping to reap Catholic votes while not wanting to
directly espouse causes advocated by the Catholic hierarchy, such as
the abolition of divorce, abortion or homosexual marriage, observers
said.
Leftist analysts observe a mounting offensive by the most
conservative elements within the Catholic hierarchy.
Justice Minister Mariano Fernandez-Bermejo said the church was
returning to the 'national-Catholicism' of the times of 1939-75
dictator Francisco Franco.
Church leaders have become increasingly involved in politics,
attending rallies in favour of Catholic education or the heterosexual
family.
The government has tried to avoid an open confrontation with the
church ahead of the elections.
It has not heeded calls to completely separate church and state,
and excluded the liberalization of abortion and the legalization of
euthanasia from its electoral agenda.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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