Prime
Minister Jose Luis Rodrigo Zapatero told Pope Benedict XVI Spain is a
secular state after the pontiff defended Church values against his
reforms on abortion, gay marriage and divorce, a statement said on
Monday.
The 83-year-old pope spent the weekend in Spain preaching the sanctity
of life from the moment of conception and of the family based on love
between a man and a woman.
Zapatero's government has angered the Church by allowing gay marriage, easier access to abortion and fast-track divorces.
Gay marriage has been embraced by many Spaniards, allowing 20,000 unions
in the past five years. And the pope's message, while cheered by tens
of thousands of the faithful, met with opposition from many others.
In Barcelona, about 200 gays and lesbians locked lips for five minutes,
breaking off to shout "Get out," and "paedophile" as the pope made his
way to consecrate the city's iconic Sagrada Familia church.
Zapatero met with Benedict at Barcelona airport just before the pope
departed for Rome and said Spain had a smooth relationship with the
Vatican, according to a statement from his office.
But the premier added that ties with the Vatican were based on the
constitution, which states Spain is a "secular state which recognises
the weight of the Catholic Church in Spain but guarantees the freedom of
all," his office said.
Even before landing in Spain on Saturday, the pope set the tone for his
visit by warning of the return of 1930s-style "aggressive"
anti-clericism and calling on Europe to rediscover its Christian roots.
The pope, who began his visit in Santiago de Campostela, Spain's holiest
city, was alluding to an era when pro-Republican forces killed priests
and nuns before and during the Civil War.
"Spain saw in the 1930s the birth of a strong and aggressive
anti-clericism," he told reporters aboard the papal plane. "The clash
between faith and modernity is happening again, and it is very strong
today."
Some of the Spanish press criticsed the pontiff's comment.
"The pope was unfair and not very diplomatic when, flying towards
Santiago de Compostela, in his traditional meeting with journalists he
compared the 'aggressive secularism' of today's Spain with that of the
'30s in the last century when churches and convents were burned," said
an editorial by the leading daily El Pais.
The visit had presented "an exceptional chance to join faith, reason and culture," the paper added. "
"But he did not take advantage of it."
The centre-right daily El Mundo also lamented the pope's "unfortunate
reference" to the 1930s, which saw the Republicans defeated in the Civil
War and the right-wing pro-Catholic dictatorship of Francisco Franco
ruling Spain for more than 35 years.
El Mundo noted that Zapatero and the pope discussed the organization of
the pontiff's visit to Madrid in August 2011 for World Youth Day. "There
is not much else they can agree on," it said.
SIC: CFM/INT'L