Spain and Vatican to "cooperate" despite differences (Roundup)

Feb 4, 2009, 14:12 GMT

Madrid - Spain's Socialist government and the Vatican on Wednesday announced 'more cooperation' despite Madrid's liberal social policies, with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero inviting Pope Benedict XVI to visit Spain in 2010.

Future relations would be marked by 'mutual respect' and 'constructive dialogue,' government sources said after Zapatero and Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone tried to patch up past differences in Madrid.

The cooperation could concern areas such as the fight against hunger and inter-religious dialogue, the sources said, without clarifying whether Zapatero and Bertone had discussed touchy subjects such as Spain's plans for a more liberal abortion law.

Cardinal Bertone came to Spain to give a lecture at the invitation of the Bishops' Conference, but the private visit soon turned into an unofficial state visit, arousing considerable interest in the country seen by the Vatican as one of the main advocates of liberal secularism in Europe.

The pope is scheduled to visit Spain 2011.

The additional 2010 visit proposed by Zapatero would mark a Holy Year in Santiago de Compostela. The city believed to house the tomb of Saint James celebrates a jubilee year whenever the apostle's day falls on a Sunday.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega defended the government's liberal policies, reminding Bertone that the Catholic Church was only one participant in a democratic debate.

Government plans to reform the current law on religious freedom towards a greater separation between church and state were aimed at adapting legislation to the increasing plurality of Spanish society, government sources quoted Vega as saying.

She added that the government had no intention of interfering with the financial privileges enjoyed by the Catholic Church, which gets billions of euros directly or indirectly from state coffers annually.

Vega also defended the government's plans for a more liberal abortion law and the introduction in schools of citizens' education classes, which Catholic activists oppose as representing secular or socialist values.

Bertone also met Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, with whom he highlighted the 'many agreements' between Spain and the Vatican on the Gaza conflict, and King Juan Carlos.

Bertone's visit was described by the Spanish press as the first 'political' one to Spain by a Vatican secretary of state, regarded as the pope's 'prime minister.' Spain's traditionally staunch Catholicism is now competing against a growing secularization.

After Zapatero became prime minister in 2004, Spain granted homosexual couples full marriage rights, and has eased divorce laws - in moves that prompted Spanish clergymen to attend massive rallies in defence of the traditional family.

The Vatican itself, however, is thought to disapprove of the Spanish bishops' combative strategy, and Bertone had been expected to adopt a conciliatory tone.

On the eve of Bertone's visit, the ruling Socialists rejected a string of initiatives from far-left parties that would have highlighted friction with the church.

Those initiatives included measures facilitating acts of apostasy by people wanting to renounce the Catholic faith, and revisiting the church's financial privileges.

The government is also in no hurry to legalize euthanasia, a move it has been considering. It postponed the presentation of the draft abortion law until after Bertone's visit.

'We are fed up,' said Joan Tarda of the Catalan republican party ERC, one of the leftist parties that accused the Socialists of giving in to pressure by the church.

The Vatican has long been concerned about what Spanish bishops describe as militant secularism in Spain, and its influence in Europe and Latin America.

Although Spain does not officially favour any religion, smaller faiths such as Protestants and Muslims complain about the privileged position of the Catholic Church.

Nearly 80 per cent of Spaniards are still officially Catholic, but less than 30 per cent of those Catholics attend church outside social events such as baptisms and weddings.