” “The Church and ETA

In Spain the Basque separatist political party Batasuna – considered the political wing of the terrorist group ETA – has been banned since 26 August by order of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and by parliamentary decision. The Congress has declared Batasuna illegal, by a provision voted by a large majority. On 17 September, the autonomous Basque parliament refused to suspend the activity of the Batasuna group, as prescribed by the judicial order. Many observers ask themselves whether it really makes any sense to ban Batasuna and will really serve to cut links with ETA, or whether on the contrary it will only exacerbate the political and social divide. We put some questions on the matter to José Francisco Serrano , author of the book “The Church in response to the terrorism of ETA”. What has hitherto been the attitude of the Spanish Church to the terrorism of ETA? “In my book are gathered approximately a thousand explicit Church condemnations of ETA terrorism from 1968 to the present day. If the Church had not condemned ETA terrorism, it would have been unfaithful to her mission of preaching the gospel of Jesus”. What is the position of the Spanish Episcopal Conference on the “law of the parties”? “The cardinal of Madrid and president of the Episcopal Conference, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, recently declared, with regard to the ‘law of the parties’, that ‘the State has the responsibility and the duty to safeguard and guarantee the fundamental rights of the person to life and liberty and, to this end, must use all the means that the legal system places at its disposal’. And he continued by saying that the Episcopal Conference does not find any objection from the viewpoint of human rights and moral law to the ‘law of the parties'”. Is the Church’s role as mediator in the conflict visible? “The Church has a primary responsibility: that of announcing Jesus. A consequence of this missionary endeavour is the creation of a climate of peace. The efforts of education in peace that the Church is making in the Basque country are little known. The first mediation is of a supernatural order: being witnesses of Christ, saviour of mankind. As a consequence of this primary mediation other processes follow; they always entail the condemnation of a climate of violence and fear in the name of the first human right: the right to life”.