John Paul II has appealed to the “deep Christian roots” of Spain and criticized the “secularism” widespread in the mentality of many Spaniards, which is leading “to the restriction of religious freedom to the point of the contempt for or ignorance of religion, relegating faith to the sphere of private life or opposing its public expression”. The Pope’s strictures were addressed to the first group of Spanish bishops making their customary “ad limina apostolorum” visit to Rome. They were received in the Vatican on 24 January. “Spain is a country of profound Christian roots recalled John Paul II -. Faith in Christ and membership of the Church have accompanied the life of the Spaniards in history and inspired its expressions through the centuries”. Today, on the contrary, the bishops and the Pope express “concern for the vitality of the Church and the difficulties it has to face”, including “religious indifference”, “moral relativism”, and “moral permissiveness”, especially widespread among the young. And with regard to the young, the Pope emphasized their “right, from the very beginning of their educational process, to be educated in the faith”: “The integral education of the youngest children cannot dispense with the teaching of religion also in schools if requested by their parents, with an academic evaluation in conformity with its importance”. “The public authorities said the Pope, referring to recent government provisions that limit the teaching of religion at school -, for their part, have the duty to guarantee this right of parents and ensure the real conditions for its effective exercise, as prescribed by the partial Accords between Spain and the Holy See of 1979, which still remain in force”. John Paul II also mentioned the social and economic problems that are afflicting some Spanish regions, such as the crisis of “mining, the steel industry and shipbuilding”, and also the social conflicts created by the management of water, a resource that is the Pope stressed – a “common good”: “the duty to share its use cannot be forgotten”. At the pastoral level the Pope urged the bishops to express their “episcopal paternity” to “sick or elderly priests”.
