[D66] Pope steps up right-wing crusade in Spain

[Antid Oto]

Pope steps up right-wing crusade in Spain
By Alejandro López and Paul Mitchell
23 August 2011

Pope Benedict XVI visited Spain last week to attend the World Youth Day 2011
(WYD), held in Madrid. Vatican officials said the Pope was returning because the
nation needed “a deeper evangelisation”.

A huge stage was erected in Plaza de Cibeles, at the centre of Madrid, and 200
confessional boxes placed next to the Retiropark for the estimated 1.5 million
pilgrims. Nine major highways and all roads going through the centre of Madrid
were closed for long periods during the four-day tour.

In his first speech, the Pope chose to condemn “the prevailing superficiality,
consumerism and hedonism, the widespread banalisation of sexuality, the lack of
solidarity, the corruption,” which he blames on secularism and left-wing
thought. King Juan Carlos, in his welcoming speech at Madrid’s Barajas airport,
echoed the Pontiff’s message, saying the time had come for society to redress “a
profound crisis of values”.

Since his appointment as Pope in 2005, Josef Ratzinger has visited Spain three
times, more than any other country. The Vatican falsely portrays Spain as a
bastion of Catholicism, chosen as a target by the forces of Marxism, liberalism,
secularism, science and virtually all things modern. But the Church is an
increasingly unpopular and discredited institution, particularly among the
youth. Today only 73 percent of Spaniards describe themselves as Roman Catholic,
but of these two thirds either seldom go to church or never do so. Some surveys
indicate that 25 percent of Spaniards describe themselves as atheist. Almost
half the churches have no priest and the seminaries are largely empty.

On the eve of the visit, thousands of people, organised by 150 secular
associations, demonstrated in the centre of Madrid against financing of the
event by the government. The protest was violently dispersed by the police.

Ratzinger’s first visit to Spain took place in July 2006. During his second
visit in November 2010, Ratzinger accused the Spanish Socialist Workers Party
(PSOE) government of promoting “aggressive secularism”. He declared that “modern
Catholicism comes mostly thanks to Spain. But it is also true that laicism, a
strong and aggressive secularism, was born in Spain, as we saw in the 1930s.”

This is a reference to the Second Republic when the monarchy was abolished,
church and state separated, religious orders dissolved, education secularised
and autonomy granted to the nationalities. These modest democratic measures
threatened the power and wealth of the Church, the landowners and the financial
and business elite who sought to reverse them. Faced with working class and
peasant resistance, they turned to fascism.

The Church fully supported Franco’s coup in 1936, describing it as “a crusade”
against “Antichrists”, and the subsequent 36-year dictatorship during which
strikes were illegal, all organisations of the working class were driven
underground or destroyed, and all opposition political parties banned.

When Franco died in 1975, and a parliamentary monarchy was established in 1978,
the Church not only survived intact but retained a privileged position, thanks
to the PSOE and Communist Party.

Under the Popular Party (PP) government (1997-2004), the Church worked with
then-president José Maria Aznar to recapture many of the powers it lost after
the fall of Franco. But these plans were thwarted by the popular revolt that
drove the PP from power.

An important factor in the PSOE’s 2004 victory was its social policies and its
moves to curtail the influence of the Catholic Church, which, according to
opinion polls, was viewed as the most distrusted and out-of-touch institution.

When the new government started to pass legislation on same-sex marriage,
adoption rights for homosexuals, easier divorce and abortion and eliminating
compulsory religious education in schools, the Church set out—in alliance with
the PP—to destabilise it. It called on its followers to disobey the laws of the
country by extra parliamentary means if necessary. The PSOE government was seen
as a prime target, not merely because of its social policies, but because it
came to power as a result of a radical movement of the working class.

Writing at the time John L. Allen, Madrid correspondent of the National Catholic
Reporter, commented, “Observers across the Catholic world have been waiting to
see if this crisis might stimulate Spanish Catholics to invent a new model of
resistance, a new battle plan.... Spain is key to Pope Benedict’s desire to
re-awaken the Christian roots of Europe.”

The PSOE could have won popular support for curtailing the influence of the
Church and ending its financial support from the state, but instead attempted to
mend the rift with the Vatican by passing a “Catholic tax”, whereby an
individual can divert a percentage of his or her income tax to the Church. This,
along with different forms of direct government funding, means that Church
coffers receive around €9 billion from the government. Its privileged position
is further reflected in the fact that the Church is the second largest property
owner in Spain.

Electoral promises such as stopping Catholic state funerals for victims of
terrorism (even when they are not Catholic), the display of crucifixes when
ministers are sworn into office, the continued presence of religious symbols in
public buildings and a reform of the 1980 law on religious freedom have been
abandoned. The PSOE government has also retreated on its promise to do something
about the continued existence of the huge mausoleum to Franco in the Valley of
the Fallen and is believed to be in discussions with the Vatican to transform
the site into “a place of reconciliation”.

The Historical Memory Association, which campaigns for the recognition of
victims of the dictatorship, has condemned such a move, saying, “The Catholic
Church has no place within discussions over the future of the site” and that the
Vatican should “publicly apologise for the role the Catholic Church played in
supporting and participating at the forefront of suppression during the Franco
dictatorship.”

At first the PSOE government even refused to authorise the demonstration against
the Pope’s visit and only allowed it on Wednesday—one day before his arrival.
Another protest organized for Thursday by atheist associations in Madrid was banned.

The right-wing media, along with the PP, initiated a campaign against the
demonstrators. Ana Botella, deputy mayor of the Madrid City Council and outgoing
PP leader José Maria Aznar’s wife, called the protest a “provocation”. The PP
Madrid regional president, Esperanza Aguirre, said it was “offensive to
Catholics”. Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, spokesman for the General Synod of
Bishops, called the organizers of the demonstration “parasites.”

The PSOE legitimised these attacks. PSOE leader José Bono, president of the
Spanish Congress, referred to Benedict XVI as “one of the most important moral
leaders of the planet” and considered his visit as “very satisfactory”.

The nature of the social forces being mobilised by the Church and the right-wing
was indicated by the arrest immediately prior to the Pope’s visit of Mexican
chemistry student José Pérez Bautista, who had threatened to attack
counter-demonstrators with “suffocating gases” and other chemicals.

Bautista was a volunteer helping pilgrims arriving for World Youth Week and had
made his threats on the Internet, echoing the Norwegian fascist mass murderer
Anders Behring Breivik who made similar boasts before shooting 77 mainly young
social democrats.

Organisers of the World Youth Day claim that there was no public money involved
in the Pope’s visit and that 70 percent of the costs were paid by those
participating and the rest by donations and business sponsors. This is a lie.
According to the “Who Pays the WYD?” blog article by bocaextra, active public
financing was given to the Church that included the use of 12,000 civil servants
(cleaners, policemen, etc.) and 693 public facilities including schools, sports
centres and shelters, 40,000 yellow and white flowers, confetti, balloons and
flags, 600 uniformed soldiers marching in a procession, an air display,
receptions in Barajas, Cibeles and Puerta del Sol, special lighting in Madrid’s
important buildings; installation of 2,000 taps in the Cuatro Vientos by a
public company and leasing Cuatro Vientos aerodrome, the Sports Palace and the
Town Hall.

The government also subsidised the visit by reducing transport tickets by 80
percent for adults and making them free for youth. National museums and
monuments were free. Companies that sponsored the event will be able to claim
tax deductions of 40 to 90 percent.

Most private entities who sponsored the World Youth Day belong to the Fundación
Madrid Vivo (Madrid Lives Foundation), headed by the Archbishop of Madrid
Antonio María Rouco Varela. This foundation includes a whole number of heads of
Spanish corporations and organizations who have spearheaded the attacks on the
living conditions of the Spanish working class since the financial crisis
erupted—including Iñigo de Oriol (Iberdrola), Gerardo Díaz Ferran (former
president of the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations), Emilio
Botín (Banco Santander), Francisco González (BBVA), Isidro Fainé (La Caixa),
César Alierta (Telefónica—currently laying off 6,400 workers), and other
individuals linked with the right-wing and extreme right-wing media.

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/pope-a23.shtml