Freedom and Respect

“We only ask freedom and respect in proposing our views. We don’t want anyone to feel they are being called into question nor do we want our words to be understood as an offence or a danger to the freedom of others. We sincerely intend to contribute to the spiritual enrichment of our society, to the consolidation of authentic tolerance and coexistence based on mutual respect, freedom and justice: essential foundations of true peace”. These were the key words of the Note of Spanish Bishops, sitting in the CCVII reunion of the Permanent Commission of Spain’s Bishops Conference on January 29-31 on the responsible approach to be adopted in expressing the right and duty to voting on March 9 National elections in Spain. Casting a responsible vote. With reference to the pastoral Instruction “Moral Guidelines for the current situation in Spain” of November 23rd 2006, the bishops pointed out that “not all programs are compatible with the faith and needs of Christian life, nor are these in harmony with the values and objectives promoted by Christian faithful in public life”. In reality, those Catholic citizens who intend to act with responsibility, “should analyze the different political proposals, bearing in mind the amount of space devoted by each party, program and politician to the moral dimension of life”. Spanish bishops affirmed that “citizens’ moral requirements in casting their vote is the best tool to preserve the vigour of democratic institutions”. This is why “a-confessional status or the secularity of the State shouldn’t entail a detachment from the moral realm”. However, pointed out the bishops, “with these words we don’t expect governing authorities to follow the criteria of Catholic morality”, since “we wish they remain faithful to the common denominator of morals founded on the righteousness and on the historical experience of all peoples”. Thus, the bishops underlined that “legislation is entitled to protect marriage in its specificity”. Furthermore, “the attempt to artificially create a society without religious references” is unjust. Other issues. A free and just society cannot “explicitly or implicitly recognize a terroristic organization as the political representative of a fringe of citizens, nor can it be viewed as a political interlocutor”, the bishops admonished. Spain’s Bishops Conference also focused on other urgent issues: it’s necessary to grant support to immigrants, to the unemployed, to lonely people, to those women who risk falling into the net of prostitution, to humiliated women threatened by domestic violence, to exploited and abused children, to the homeless and to those who don’t have a family. We cannot remain silent. In response to the polemics triggered by the Note in Premier Zapatero’s government, His Eminence Card. Antonio Cañizares, archbishop of Toledo and vice-President of Spain’s Bishops Conference, in his homily delivered on February 3rd’s Mass, pointed out that “the Church has no other Word other than Christ, no other richness than Christ, no other power than that of Christ who came to serve and not to be served”. For this reason “she will not remain silent to this Word, despite the intentions of this world’s powers to keep her silent or reduced merely within the realm of sacred environments”. This because “the Church as Christ, is interested in man” and “she yearns to his happiness”. “This is the foundation of her action”, added His Eminence, “although this might entail for the Church to be the object of “false and unjust judgement”. The Note, “has its raison d’être” in the harmony with the truth of the Gospel”, and therefore, “in the service to mankind”. Unjust reactions. Also the secretary general and spokesman of Spain’s Bishops Conference, Msgr. Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, intervened defining as “serious” and “unjust” the Psoe’s reactions to the Note. “The Church doesn’t remain silent on the issue of marriage, for example”, he clarified. “It continues in its proposal of the Gospel since the intention to prohibit the use of the terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’ in the civil code “is an attack against the fundamental rights of all husbands and wives in the Country”. As relates to Eta, Msgr. Martinez Camino remarked that the bishops’ view is that “the terrorists cannot be political interlocutors since this would mean legitimizing organized crime”. He also clarified that the Note “doesn’t say that this has happened nor that any Government did so”. Msgr. Camino considered the Psoe’s statement that the “Church hierarchy doesn’t accept the Constitution and is outside the democratic system”, only because it exerts “its pastoral duty and its freedom of speech”, is “a serious fact and reason for concern”. For the prelate, “the bishops didn’t participate in the electoral campaign” nor did they express preference for a specific party. Also the Observatory for Freedom of Religion and Conscience expressed its solidarity to Spain’s Bishops Conference for the attacks undergone after the publication of the Note: “It seems impossible that in democracy everyone has a right to express himself except for the bishops”, he said in a communiqué.