The Pope himself has entered the fray.In a speech made before 180 accredited ambassadors to the Vatican, Benedict XVI condemned on 7 January ‘the worrying attacks on the integrity of the family unit, founded since time immemorial by marriage between men and women’.
The Pope at no time mentioned names, but this was unnecessary, since all those ambassadors knew that the Pope referred to Spain, where the President of her Government recently laucnhed a tremndous attack on the Church after it had organised a massive demonstration on behalf of ‘the family unit’ in Madrid.
Not only the Italian press, but papers around the world have not ceased commenting on this direct confrontation between an openly atheist government and the Catholic Church.
Shades of the 2nd Republic are rapidly closing in.
Mr Zapatero’s government has never been easy in its relations with the Church, but senior vice-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega tried hard to establish a direct link between the Spanish administration and the Vatican.
She was rejected by cardinals who told her relations must be cordially established between themselves and the Spanish Conference of Bishops (a sort of clerical trade union made up of the bosses).
Zapatero replied by sending as ambassador to the Vatican the popular Francisco Vázquez, and things got a little better.
The senior vice-president was well received in Rome when she attended the investiture of three new Spanish cardinals. Then foreign minister Moratinos received special attention when he went to watch the beatification of 498 Spanish martyrs.
Now, it seems that Mr Zapatero, always eager to represent discord, or at least to sow it, has decided to return to the practice of confrontation.
The Church is a solid wall between agreement and disagreement, since its dogma cannot accept the idea of (1) rapid divorce; (2) marriage between persons of the same sex; (3) abortion, or (4) decisions which prevent parents from being able to choose an education for their children which includes religion.
No Spanish bishop can change his own or his church’s views on these subjects, and others, without a series of church reforms.
These can only be expedited after a lengthy conference between all the world’s cardinals – in the Vatican.
Meanwhile, the world’s onlookers see nothing but strife between Mr Zapatero’s government and a leading Spanish institution.
Things can only get worse.
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