Reviving hope” “

“We must revive the hope of this country, weakened by time and by the complexity of the problems that beset it”. So write the Basque bishops (dioceses of Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria) in a pastoral letter issued on 30 May, entitled “Preparing for peace”. The bishops criticize the new “Law on the political parties” which bans the Basque separatist party Herri Batasuna, political wing of the terrorists of ETA. In spite of these protests, the lower Chamber of the Spanish Parliament approved the law on 4 June with 304 votes in favour and 16 against. The bishops’ pastoral letter aroused harsh criticism from the government and from many political exponents, beginning with the Spanish premier himself, José Maria Aznar. Spanish foreign minister Josep Piquè met the apostolic nuncio of the Holy See, Msgr. Manuel Monteiro de Castro, on 5 June to ask for an explanation. Meanwhile 360 Basque priests signed an appeal in support of their Pastors, while others mounted a campaign to collect signatures denouncing the document. In a communiqué of 31 May, the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) stressed that “the Basque bishops published the pastoral letter under their exclusive responsibility as pastors of their own particular Churches”. Nonetheless “the document – the CEE communiqué continues – contains a firm condemnation of the terrorism of ETA, which has no justification, neither moral, nor juridical, nor political”. The executive Committee of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has been convened for 7 June to discuss the affair. Below we give a resumé of the letter of the Basque bishops. Bishop Ricardo Blázquez of Bilbao, Bishop Juan María Uriarte of San Sebastián and Bishop Miguel José Asurmendi of Vitoria affirm in their joint letter “that peace is incompatible with terrorism… ETA must disappear, with all its legacy of violence. The moral evaluation of the terrorism of ETA must therefore be uncompromisingly negative” and that includes “those persons or groups that collaborate with terrorist actions, or that conceal and defend them”. Commenting on the proposed banning of the Basque separatist party Herri Batasuna, the bishops, however, warn against “some possible adverse consequences” and wonder whether “social reconciliation, already gravely damaged, would not suffer a further deterioration in the country as a result”. “Probably – they point out – division and conflict would be further exacerbated”. “After September 11 the temptation has emerged to upset the delicate balance between security and human rights with a greater accentuation of the first part of the equation”. But, they explain, not everything is valid in the fight against terrorism: society has the right and the duty to defend itself, but at the same time all the means it must use must be morally licit and politically correct. In no case must it cross over the threshold of the inviolable rights of the person”. According to the bishops, “peace is the paramount objective of this society… other objectives, however legitimate, must be subordinated to it”. In their view, “the problem must be solved by patient dialogue that seeks an agreement, because excluding dialogue means renouncing real peace”. The bishops therefore ask the political parties, the mass media and society as a whole to “offer signs of détente and rapprochement”: to “respect the identity of others, appreciate the values present in each culture, promote a reciprocal exchange that may produce mutual enrichment and cultivate the deep consciousness of belonging to a single but pluralist country”. The bishops end their letter by affirming that “the option for peace begins from the education of the young generations, by inculcating in them critical thought, ethical conscience, sensibility for every human life, respect for differences, the feeling of belonging to the same pluralist country, and a commitment to fostering social reconciliation”.