Spain's church-state tensions increasing over range of issues

Published: 2004-05-05

PARIS (CNS) -- Tensions are rising between the Catholic Church in Spain and the new Socialist government over a range of issues from religious education in public schools to abortion and same-sex marriages. At a meeting of the Spanish bishops' conference in Madrid in early May, its president, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, said the church was open to dialogue but would not give way on any of its basic principles. Referring to the changes wrought by the Socialists' election victory March 14, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, told the conference that "the new political situation has brought new challenges to the church, to which it will have to find an adequate response." Among these challenges are education, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, gender change and stem-cell research.

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