But he doesn’t mean the secularization and low Mass attendance numbers. And he doesn’t mean the country’s Socialist government implementing a raft of anti-Catholic initiatives.
“This is a very beautiful moment,” said Father Leopoldo Vives, the head of the secretariat on family and life for the Spanish Bishops Conference, because it’s “an opportunity to teach people what we believe.”
“It’s true that this isn’t the Church of 20 years ago, but people are reacting, and their consciences are being formed. This, however, isn’t enough,” Father Vives said. “The Church must teach the people so that they have a solid Christian base, so that Christian parents, in turn, teach their children.”
He added, “Parents must fight for their children. This isn’t something that the bishops can do. This is something that parents must do.”
In a country where 90 percent of the Spanish population claims to be Catholic, the government says 60 percent of the population supported its recently passed same-sex “marriage” legislation. Press accounts routinely report only 30 percent of Spaniards regularly attend Mass.
Those numbers, says Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government, prove that the government not only has the broad support of Spaniards, but also reflect the Church’s lack of relevance.
The Church’s defenders counter the media coverage of the Church is often slanted.
“The Socialist Party has a large presence in the media, especially via Prisa, which controls 80 percent of the press,” Father Vives noted. The Spanish media company Prisa, which owns Spain’s most-widely read newspapers and magazines, as well as the nation’s only digital satellite television platform, is seen as being close to Socialist governments.
Homosexual 'Families'
In June, Spain became the third European country to legalize homosexual “marriages.” Canada followed later in the month.
However, unlike the Netherlands and Belgium, in Spain homosexual couples can now apply to adopt children. Since the law was passed, two judges have refused to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies on the grounds the law is unconstitutional, as the Spanish Constitution refers to marriage as between a man and a woman. They have appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court.
Despite widely-reported press accounts that up to 5,000 homosexual couples were prepared to marry immediately following the passage of the same-sex legislation, only 22 same-sex “marriages” have been performed in Spain since the law was passed, according to a Sept. 8 article in La Razón, a Spanish newspaper that contacted various Spanish marriage registries.
Recently, the Partido Popular appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the new marriage law. The high court has still to hear that case.
Spain’s government has also pushed through legislation for fast-track divorces, and is rumored to be contemplating easing legislation governing abortion — although officially Socialist party members claim it isn’t a priority. The government is also expected to present a bill this month to permit therapeutic cloning, which involves the killing of a human life. When asked why Catholic Spain has a government passing laws that flagrantly violate Church teachings, Father Josep Saranyana, a professor of history of theology at the University of Navarre, said many of the political leaders in the 55-70 age bracket have a common denominator: a lack in basic Catholic formation.
A form of pietism with no theological base, continued Father Saranyana, has influenced many of the current politicians.
Others lost their faith altogether.
Another problem is a widespread opinion that separation of Church and state means that the Church should play no part at all in political debates.
"The [opposition] fails to understand t
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