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Bishop Ricardo Blásquez Pérez of Bilbao (Basque Country) is the new president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. He succeeds Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid. The new vice-president is Archbishop Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo. The nominations (for a three-year term) were decided in the course of the 84th general assembly (7-11 March) being held in Madrid. There are 76 Spanish bishops that have the right to vote, to elect the seven new members of the permanent Council and the 14 chairmen of the Episcopal Commissions. Msgr. Blásquez Pérez was born at Villanueva de Campillo (Avila) on 13 April 1942. He was ordained priest in 1967 and bishop in 1988. From 1988 to 1992 he was auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Compostela. He has been bishop of Bilbao since 8 September 1995 and has filled the post of chairman of the Commission for interconfessional relations over the last three years. Bishop Blásquez was one of the authors, together with the bishops of San Sebastian and Vitoria, of the pastoral letter “Preparing peace” on the problem of Basque nationalism and terrorism. The new vice-president of the Bishops’ Conference, Msgr. Cañizares Llovera, was born at Utiel in the province of Valencia on 15 October 1945. Ordained priest in 1970, he was nominated bishop of Avila in 1992. He became bishop of Granada in 1992 and archbishop of Toledo in 2002. He is a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In his inaugural address to the new assembly, Cardinal Antonio M. Rouco Varela, outgoing president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, recalled the anniversary of 11 March, a year after the tragic terrorist attack on the Atocha station in Madrid. A mass for the souls of the victims will be celebrated on that date in the cathedral of Almudena. “The terrible scourge of terrorism any terrorism must disappear said Cardinal Rouco -. All of us must energetically work together to eliminate it. No type of compromise is morally possible with those who exploit persons and assassins indiscriminately”. In his address Cardinal Varela has also repeated “the will to cooperate” with the Spanish government, even if different points of the political agenda “arouse serious misgivings and also clear opposition” on the part of Catholics. “We have always declared he continued our wish to maintain positive relations of collaboration with the legitimate authorities of the State, in respect for the constitutional order and the existing accords between Spain and the Holy See”. The mission of the Church, he added, “is not politics but evangelization”, but that does not stop “Catholics from acting in a responsible manner by virtue of various legitimate conceptions of public affairs”. The president of the Spanish episcopate recalled the words of the Pope on the diffusion in Spain of a “mentality inspired by secularism”: “it is a worrying phenomenon that strikes all Western societies in one way or another he observed -. This mentality not only hampers the evangelising action of the Church but also the full and unrestricted conduct of social life”. The last bishops to meet the Pope before his recent operation included Bishop Carles Soler i Perdigò of Girona (Catalonia), who told SIR: “In spite of his suffering, he listened to me with close attention. He limited himself to saying thanks in a low voice, and ending by imparting his blessing”. In spite of the fact that he is suffering so much, he is completely dedicated to the mission he has received”.
