Already over half a million signatures have been collected in Spain to defend religious education in schools, “but we want to reach the target of one million”, says José Luis Sánchez, education delegate of the National Platform that defends religion in schools. The new government plans to shift religious education outside school hours and exclude it from the national curriculum. The Spanish Catholic world has been mobilized against this intention with numerous initiatives: dioceses that have organized pro-religious education campaigns on the web (e.g. www.proreligionmalaga.org.) and organizations like hazteoir.org, Conpaca (Confederation of Catholic Parents’ Associations), or the National Platform itself (www.vozclasereligion.org), have entered the fray to campaign in favour of religion at school. The Platform has the institutional support of the bishops including the Cardinal of Madrid, Antonio M. Rouco Varela or the archbishop of Valencia, García Gasco. The campaign has become even more active ever since it was announced, on 30 September, that the parliamentary debate to discuss the law on school reform is imminent. The defenders of religion suggest that a letter be sent to the head of the government Rodriguez Zapatero, to explain the reasons for the presence of the Area of society, culture and religion in schools. To ensure that the letter arrives, they have also furnished the personal e-mail of Zapatero: jose.rodriguez@diputado.congreso.es
