Spanish laity

In Spain, considering “the dilemmas presented to the Church by political stances that are extremely distant from the ‘positive laity’ recently revived by President Sarkozy – but which is an important feature in policies’ development throughout a number of European Countries – could easily trigger a pessimistic forecast of Church-State relations”, declared Antonio Pelayo, ecclesiastic counselor of the Spanish embassy to the Holy See and Vatican correspondent for “Antenna 3”, in an article published in the latest issue of “Vita e Pensiero”, cultural magazine of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan-Rome.No to head-on confrontation. In the framework of Spanish Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s reception of the President of the Bishops Conference, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, and the controversial draft-bill provisions on abortion and euthanasia, Pelayo analyzed the current relations between the government and the Catholic Church remarking that “nothing could be worse for the Church than to encourage a head-on confrontation with President Zapatero’s government”. “Dialogue” is certainly the best option. Past August 1st, he recalled, Zapatero had a meeting with Cardinal Rouco Varela in Madrid’s Moncloa Palace, whose “cordial atmosphere” was emphasized by the two interlocutors. Pelayo reported “the mutual acknowledgement of the respective missions (of State and Church, ed.’s note) and independence for cooperation to the service of the common good” expressed by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. At the same time, the government reassured the ecclesial hierarchy on its “loyalty and respect, asking loyalty and respect in return”. Thus, “mutual willingness to dialogue” was conveyed without concealing “the different criteria adopted on concrete issues”. Abortion and euthanasia. “The meeting, void of useless triumphalism – the journalist remarked – reportedly opened a new phase in Church-State relations”. These had previously been marked by “severe disagreement” following Zapatero’s coming into power, and by “an atmosphere of serious tensions” after December 2007 Family Day in Madrid, when the words of Cardinals Rouco and García Gasco (the archbishop of Valencia) had caused the “vehement reaction” of the government and of the Socialist Party (Psoe). Much criticism against the Church emerged during the latter’s congress (July 2008). However “the left-socialist’s party’s proposal to review the agreements between the Spanish State and the Holy See endorsed in 1979 didn’t prevail”, Pelayo remarked. Whereas the Congress gave the green light to two provisions “with a high ethical bearing”: “the revision of the legislation on abortion, 23 years after its enforcement”, and the establishment of a “debate” for “a greater contribution to the right to a dignified death”. Dialogue and constructive debate. In September the Government set up a committee of experts “charged with planning a ‘new’ law on abortion. Eight doctors and jurists, – Pelayo explained – all more or less willing to extend the basis of present legislation to facilitate voluntary pregnancy interruption”. No feminist movement representative or Catholic bioethicist are members of the Committee. While the Spanish platform “The Right to Life” (DAV) – which promoted an initiative in plaza de las Cortes, near the Chamber of Deputies, during the second private session of the Parliament’s Subcommittee on abortion last week – is gaining grounds, “Spain’s Bishops Conference has not yet made a public statement” although it views abortion “as a heinous crime and as the manifestation of the ‘culture of death'”. As relates to euthanasia, in an interview with the daily “El País”, the minister of Justice Bernat Soria announced the establishment of a committee of experts and representatives of the Justice and Health Departments since, Pelayo explained, “if the reform at stake will succeed, the current Criminal code will need to undergo modificaation”. According to Pelayo, these are issues that “spark off a debate which the Spanish Church will need to address by voicing its pro-life stand that starts “from the moment of conception to its natural termination”. However it should carefully avoid “encouraging head-on confrontation with Zapatero’s government”. “We must absolutely not renounce the principles inspiring the Weltanshauung of Christian anthropology – Pelayo concluded – but we also need to make the most of dialogue opportunities and constructive debate”.