Spanish government counters Catholic "offensive"

Jan 2, 2008, 13:15 GMT

Madrid - Spain's Socialist government Wednesday countered what the left-leaning press was describing as a Catholic 'offensive' against its policies two months ahead of the general elections.

It was society and its representatives that had the right to decide about the 'principles of individual freedom and coexistence,' while religious confessions had their own internal autonomy, the Socialist Party said.

The party issued a communique in response to accusations by several church leaders that policies such as homosexual marriage were eroding human rights and democracy.

Spain's Catholic Church either had to contest the March 9 elections or to stay out of politics, Socialist Party organizational secretary Jose Blanco wrote in his blog.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government spoke out after several bishops accused it of undermining human rights or democracy at a rally of 160,000 people in Madrid on Sunday.

The church has long been at odds with a government that legalized homosexual marriage, speedier divorce and stem-cell research.

At the rally in defence of the traditional family on Sunday, Valencia archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco said that 'radical secularism' could dissolve democracy.

Madrid cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco accused the government of eroding human rights by not recognizing the traditional family as the basic social unit.

Blanco on Tuesday described such accusations as 'extremely serious,' offensive to Catholic Socialists, and urged the church to rectify the statements.

Recently, the government also criticized a Tenerife bishop for equating homosexuality with child molestation.

The government accuses the church of waging an undercover electoral campaign in favour of the conservative opposition People's Party (PP).

The PP is hoping to reap Catholic votes while not wanting to directly espouse causes advocated by the Catholic hierarchy, such as the abolition of divorce, abortion or homosexual marriage, observers said.

Leftist analysts observe a mounting offensive by the most conservative elements within the Catholic hierarchy.

Justice Minister Mariano Fernandez-Bermejo said the church was returning to the 'national-Catholicism' of the times of 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco.

Church leaders have become increasingly involved in politics, attending rallies in favour of Catholic education or the heterosexual family.

The government has tried to avoid an open confrontation with the church ahead of the elections.

It has not heeded calls to completely separate church and state, and excluded the liberalization of abortion and the legalization of euthanasia from its electoral agenda.