The bishops’ perspective ” “

From November 18-22 the Plenary meeting of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) took place in Madrid, during which Fr. José María Gil Tamayo was elected CEE General Secretary and spokesperson for the years 2013-2018. During the plenary was approved the CEE budget for 2013. The bishops also reflected on two major events for the Church: the beatification of 522 martyrs of the 20th century in Spain, celebrated in Tarragona past October, and the upcoming publication of the catechism “Witnesses of the Lord”. Unity at risk. In their final statement the bishops underlined the highlights of the prolusion by cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, who provided a balance of the Year of Faith: “The Year of Faith will have achieved its objectives if it will have helped us to awaken our consciousness on the major challenge sparked off by the faith crisis in many people, a crisis that has also affects us – pastors, religious and lay people – when we live immersed in ‘spiritual worldliness ‘, as frequently denounces the Pope, reiterating the need for a pastoral conversion”. However, pointed out the cardinal, a balance of the Year is not possible without a glance at the situation in the country. After focusing once again on the economic crisis in Spain, Rouco Varela expressed concern that “the unity between all citizens of different communities and regions of Spain, with many centuries of common history, may suddenly reach a point of rupture”. “The unity of the Spanish nation is a fundamental part of the common good of our society that needs to be treated with moral responsibility”, His Eminence added. “That responsibility necessarily includes respect for the basic rules of coexistence, such as the Spanish Constitution”. The cardinal also voiced his concern that “the wounds caused by terrorism to many victims and to society are not treated according to the path of forgiveness and mercy sought, accepted and granted to the heart”. Marriage and the family. The prelate emphasized the concern of the bishops “for the present and the future of marriage and the family”, whose decline is also caused by “unjust laws”. “We reaffirm once again – claimed the archbishop of Madrid – the need for laws that recognize and protect marriage and the family. The current legislation, which not even recognizes the human reality of marriage in its specificity with an adequate legal institution or figure, must be corrected and improved, as it seriously jeopardizes the common good”. The CEE President pointed out that that very “selfishness which triumphs in the marriage and in family life in Spain sometimes like in no other field of social relations, must be fought also in the realms of education in general and certainly in that of Catholic formation and pastoral care of marriage and the family”. His Eminence announced that the Church “relentlessly urges” political leaders to bring about “a positive change in legislation and policies on marriage and the family”, which may include “questions pertaining to bioethics and the right to life”. The good of life. During the press conference at the end of the Plenary Assembly, the Secretary General and spokesman of CEE, Gil Tamayo, referring to the question of institutional support of the Church to demonstrations of protest against the law on abortion, explained that “for evangelical truth the Church chooses life. She is against everything that constitutes an attack against human life. Abortion is not a religious issue: it pertains to the fundamental right to life. On the basis of their religious beliefs, Catholics, together with people of good will, along with faithful from other confessions who defend life, are the ones called to commit themselves in the defence of life”.