Spain's ruling Socialists on Friday slammed Catholic bishops for urging people not to vote in next month's elections for parties who favor gay marriage or negotiations with armed separatists in two obvious jabs aimed at the government. "The bishops have decided to enter the election campaign. They have decided to call for votes for the (right wing) Popular Party," Socialist spokesman Jose Blanco told Cadena SER radio.
But Blanco said it was logical given that for the past four years the church had joined the Popular Party in numerous anti-government demonstrations against negotiations with the armed Basque group ETA, gay marriage and curtailing religious education in schools.
Describing the bishops' stance as "immoral" and "hypocritical," Blanco said he was sure that many Catholics, like him, felt ashamed of the church's political interference.
Spain holds general elections March 9 with latest polls indicating the Socialists and the Popular Party are in a dead heat.
In Spain, the Catholic Church's leaders have long sided with the right and even supported the fascist forces of late Gen. Francisco Franco in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and his ensuing near four-decade dictatorship.Under democracy, the church has consistently backed the conservatives in elections although it never actually names any political party.
In a statement Wednesday, the Spanish Bishop's Conference statement said that while "Catholics may support and join different parties it is also true that not all (electoral) programs are equally compatible with the faith and Christian demands in life."
The statement cited Pope Benedict XVI in urging protection for the traditional form of marriage and it criticized government moves to restrict religious teaching in school.
Blanco said that Spain had the same abortion and divorce laws when the Popular Party was in office and the church never complained.
On the issue of talks with armed groups, the bishops said: "A society which wants to be free and fair must neither, explicitly nor implicitly, recognize a terrorist organization as a political representative of any sector of the population."
Zapatero's efforts to negotiate an end to the Basque conflict with ETA were supported by all parties barring the conservatives. The bid collapsed when ETA called off a cease-fire after failing to win concessions.
Blanco accused the church of hypocrisy saying it took part in talks with ETA under former Popular Party Prime Minister Jose Maria's Aznar.
"When Aznar sent a bishop to negotiations with ETA it wasn't a sin," Blanco said.
In a statement Thursday, the Socialists said: "If people are not to vote for parties who have negotiated with ETA, then they won't have to vote as no party fulfills that requisite."
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