Catholic bishops in Spain have warned of growing division and tension in their country over government attempts to “deconstruct and dismantle the Christian worldview.”
The bishops said an attempt was underway to “erase distinctions between truth and falsehood, reality and fiction, good and evil.”
The warning was contained in a 95-page statement, published July 28, setting out pastoral guidelines for the Spanish church from now until 2025.
“We are in a difficult moment, not only because of COVID-19 but because we are convulsed by a deep institutional crisis. Some groups are seeking to open a new constitutional phase and replace a political framework that has given Spain great stability,” the bishops’ conference said.
“Legislative initiatives by the coalition government on education, euthanasia, abortion, democratic memory and the judiciary reflect a global deconstruction project. The development of which puts freedom at risk and impedes essential unity.”
“With its prophetic mission, the church is obliged to denounce these attacks on freedom and justice, to act as a channel of encounter and reconciliation,” the bishops said.
They added that “Spaniards are no longer living in a culture inspired by the Christian faith. For many, Christian truths have become incomprehensible, as moral standards flowing from the Gospel also become unacceptable.”
The statement was released two days after the Socialist Party confirmed plans to review a series of 1979 accords with the Vatican. It proposes to adopt a “statute of secularism,” enforcing “strict separation between politics and religion, law and morality, crime and sin.”
The bishops have criticised laws facilitating same-sex marriage, secularised education, state-funded euthanasia and abortion.
A draft “Trans Law,” enabling people over age 16 to re-register their gender through a court declaration without medical or legal procedures, was approved in June.
A Democratic Memory Law is expected to spur demands for the removal of Catholic monuments linked to the 1939-1975 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
Many Catholics had shown “generosity, closeness and pastoral creativity” during the pandemic. However, evangelisation had been made difficult by eroding family bonds. This also caused a loss of trust in the church, the bishops said.
They added that many lived “as if God did not exist.”
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