Pope Visits Spain, Flash Point for Church-State Tensions

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/world/europe/09pope.html?pagewanted=print

July 9, 2006
Pope Visits Spain, Flash Point for Church-State Tensions
By IAN FISHER

VALENCIA, Spain, July 8 — Pope Benedict XVI arrived Saturday in Spain for a brief but charged visit to register the church's opposition to gay marriage and Europe's long slide into secularism.

"Rapid secularization" and pretending God does not exist "compromises the future of culture and society," the 79-year-old pope said in a written message to Spain's bishops.

Perhaps nowhere in Europe are tensions between church and state as strong as in Spain, a once solidly Roman Catholic nation that is particularly important to the church. And, even amid the pomp of a papal visit, neither side is hiding the frictions.

Over the last two years, the church has grown increasingly dismayed over the policies of the Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who last year legalized gay marriage and has loosened laws on divorce and medically assisted fertilization. Last week, two Spanish soldiers, both men, announced plans to be married this summer..............

[IndianaGreen]

1. Not only has Spain legalized gay marriage, it has cut off Church funding

Ever since the Franco dictatorship, the Spanish Catholic Church (which gave birth to Opus Dei), has been receiving subsidies from the Spanish government. PM Zapatero announced that his government would stop those subsidies, much to the dismay of the clerics.

[Erika]

2. I don't like this right wing condemning Pope

He spends more time condemning than blessing. He's homophobic and exclusive. He, Falwell, and Robertson could hold a joint meeting of the minds and a service.

No, I'm not Catholic.

Where is his care for the poor, the elderly, or the needy? He's fixated on right wing homophobia and restricting science and women's rights.

Where is his concern for Iraqis needlessly attacked? These men live in a bubble. Christ did not. I think Christ was with the people.

[Selatius]

3. Look, this is ultimately up to individuals to decide, Benedict

If people want to have sex or marry members of the same sex in the privacy of their lives, then you have no authority in imposing your judgment on top of theirs even if you feel your position is the correct one. Your right to impose ends when my right to freedom of choice begins.

Zapatero apparently holds more worth in the power of individuals to decide the affairs of their lives than you do, Benedict.

[xchrom]

4. does the pope honestly think that spain is not prfondly catholic

because voters elect a socialist?

no, he doesn't think that -- what pisses him off is that the government has/is cutting itself free from church influence and leaving it up to individuals.

but like robertson and falwell -- this poe sees an opportunity to set peoples hair on fire and them leave the country without taking real responsibility.