Posted on 01/11/2008 8:43:50 AM PST by Pyro7480
SPAIN, January 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the wake of a massive pro-marriage and pro-family demonstration that included between one and two million participants, Spanish socialists are lashing out at the Catholic Church, accusing it of hypocrisy and of attempting to intervene in the political process.
Speakers at the rally, which took place on December 30, rarely made mention of government or politics. However, the message of the rally was clear: the natural, two-parent family, consisting of a husband and wife, is the foundation of society. The Socialist Worker's Party, which currently controls the presidency and the parliament, passed a law in 2005 allowing homosexuals to "marry" each other. With barely three months remaining before the national elections, they are worried about the effect the demonstration could have on an already tight race.
According to Vatican radio, the government at first asked the Catholic bishops to "apologize" for the rally. Now the Catholic News Agency is reporting that Jose Blanco, Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) that currently occupies the presidency, denounced the Pope and hierarchy, asking them "to explain to me just exactly what is the Christian family, maybe by traditional family he means that the woman just stays at home and does housework."
Blanco also claimed that some members of the Church hierarchy needed to "re-read the gospel", accusing them of promoting conditions of "inequality and injustice in the morning, and resolve them by praying the rosary in the afternoon." Blanco encouraged the hierarchy to "evolve".
Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has also complained, asserting that the bishops never criticized the anti-family policies of the Populist Party, the "right wing" alternative to the socialists, who lost power in 2004. However, as the Spanish website ForumLibertas points out, the Catholic bishops repeatedly criticized the Popular Party for failing to defend family values during their eight-year tenure.
ForumLibertas documents the fact that Catholic bishops repeatedly criticized the approval of the abortifacient "morning after pill" RU-486, which was approved under Popular Party leadership in 1998, and decried the "tragic consequence" of the government's liberal abortion laws, which were not altered under Popular Party leadership (http://www.forumlibertas.com/frontend/forumlibertas/noticia....).
The Spanish ambassador to the Vatican, Francisco Vázquez, also chimed in against the Catholic Church. Speaking of himself in the third person, he said that "many Spaniards, among them the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, in his role as ambassador, as a politician, as a member of the Socialist Party, but, most of all in his condition of Christian and Spanish citizen," had the impression that the bishops' demonstration had ended up being "practically a political rally".
In response, the Spanish activist group Hazte Oir! is calling for the dismissal of Vázquez and is maintaining an on line petition for that purpose (http://www.hazteoir.org/node/9857).
A mass rally in support of traditional families that featured a live satellite-television broadcast from Pope Benedict XVI has been harshly criticized by Spain’s ruling Socialist Party as promoting undemocratic values.
The Madrid rally -- held Dec. 30, the eve of the Feast of the Holy Family -- was promoted by Cardinal Antonio Rouca Varela of Madrid and his archdiocese. Kiko Arguello, founder of the church movement Neocatechumenal Way, organized the event with a variety of church movements and communities. Organizers said 1.5 million people attended the rally, but crowd estimates from Spanish media were considerably smaller.
Arguello told Vatican Radio Dec. 29 that the rally was meant to support the traditional family, which in Europe is under “mortal attack.”
Since the Socialist Party won elections in 2004, Spain’s parliament has liberalized divorce laws, approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, and battled church officials over religion in the public school curriculum.
Arguello said, “Christian families need support because we are a minority; we are in a very serious situation.” He said the rally was not political.
In his address, Pope Benedict said, “The good of the person and society is intimately linked to the ‘healthy condition’ of the family,” which, he said, is “founded on the indissoluble union between a man and woman.”
The ruling Socialist party was swift in its criticism of the rally, saying in a statement that the Spanish Catholic church “has strayed from the fundamentals of democracy.”
A democracy, the statement said, is based on the principle that society has the authority to organize the principles of individual freedom. “In a regime based on freedoms, faith cannot be legislated,” the statement said.
Justice Minister Mariano Fernández Bermejo suggested that the church “put its own house in order.”
Socialist party secretary Jose Blanco said that the church’s leadership “with their lies” are capable of causing a breakdown of the Christian family.
He also said the socialists were foremost defenders of the family, having implemented social policies making it possible for parents to reconcile work and family life, by granting fathers paternity leave, for example.
General elections are slated for March 9, and polls show the Socialists and the center-right Popular Party, which the socialists defeated three years ago, are neck and neck. Analysts say the Socialists may be forced to strike deals with smaller parties to stay in power.
Spain remains a predominantly Roman Catholic nation. In a July 2007 survey by the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Foundation, 74 percent of those interviewed described themselves as Catholics. But six out of 10 respondents said they accepted same-sex marriage, half did not go to church, except for baptisms, funerals and weddings, and 42 percent said they never prayed.
Catholic ping!
Jose Blanco should change his name to Jose Rojo.
The socialists in Europe are just as dangerous as the Fascists - after all, NAZI stands for the German for National Socialists.
Sure..and socialist values like abortion, sexual freedom, same-sex marriages,euthanasia and trashing biblical tenets compose the strong foundation for unifying family values?.. You Morons.
Socialists just can’t stand opposition.
A political rally? Yes if moral is political since socialists are amoral...
An other question?
The socialists will get theirs when the Caliphate of Cordoba is reestablished.
Now what? Should I head to the Philippines?
Sorry. I know. Gotta make one at home.
and that 42% will start to pray....
They’ll start to pray to Allah, or else!
Maybe I’m overly pessimistic, though. There could be a Christian revival before Shari’a arrives.
All of the descendants of real Spaniards like EL CID emigrated to other countries(like the good old USA) centuries ago.
Mary promised at Fatima that the Faith would always be practiced in Portugal. It's a pretty country, with a whole lot of empty space that looks like the Sierra Nevada.
That was just the short form. The full name being the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - NSDAP). Yet, academia loves to label the NSDAP as “right wing.”
Poland is your best bet there.
Academia in America had sold out to the left.
We both know the NAZIs were socialists and the Fascists were closer to liberals than to conservatives.
Spain is heading back to the future... New Andalusia for the socialist delusionists.
“He also said the socialists were foremost defenders of the family, having implemented social policies making it possible for parents to reconcile work and family life, by granting fathers paternity leave, for example.”
As a father of three, I can say what a load of bull. Get off your arse and work.
If Socialists believed in work, they wouldn't be Socialists. I did not realise how far down the road to ruin Spain was until I read Mark Steyn's book "America Alone"
Ping.
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