Live from the Nuke Free Zone

It seems the first major act of the Vatican’s new Pope Benedict XVI is to have his head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, condemn a bill in Spain’s Parliament that would permit homosexual marriage and adoption.
Should the bill become law, the Cardinal calls on Spanish Catholics in a position to do so to refuse to comply with it, even at the cost of losing their jobs. Trujillo’s position looks equivalent to that of a US Cabinet Secretary, and the Washington Post agrees that the condemnation had Benedict’s blessing.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Spain, as the country’s history is intertwined with the Church. Spain became its modern single entity as a result of the Reconquista, a centuries-long holy war to take back the Iberian peninsula from Muslim invaders in the name of Christendom. More recently, the movement behind Franco’s fascist coup of 1936 was in part aggravated by Catholic resentment of the neutral to hostile attitude shown the Church by the then government, an elected alliance of socialist, communist, and anarchist parties, and Franco made the Catholic Church the state religion during his dictatorship. There was also that little thing called the Inquisition.

Spain’s current government is ruled by the Socialist Workers Party, recently elected following the train bombings in 2004 which shocked the country and which the government then in power blamed the wrong terrorists for. They’re a secular party which probably will not appreciate the Church meddling in the country’s political affairs. The Church, likewise, doesn’t appreciate the Socialists’ secularism and less so the move to revoke the privileges offered the Church by the Spanish state. This is something to keep an eye on. If the Church isn’t just emphasizing a long-time policy, but continues further with future announcements to create a campaign against the Socialist government, then things could get hairy in Spain. John Paul II was highly regarded for fighting Communism in Poland, and considering that people in my country can’t tell this difference between Communism and Socialism (and a whole bunch of other things), perhaps some in the Church might see a campaign against the Spanish Socialists as continuing the previous Pope’s work.

Think the Vatican wouldn’t intervene in another country’s internal politics? Have a look at this memorandum issued to select US clergy by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the middle of the 2004 US election campaign for President, and later leaked to the public. Note how tolerance of legalized abortion or euthanasia in Catholic politicians and voters is condemned as “a grave sin”, an act “to cooperate with evil” making a Catholic “unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion”. Note that lesser sins offered for comparison are to support wars and executions, for which the Church recognizes “a legitimite diversity of opinion” and would not deny one Communion. Note that the two major candidates in this election were George W. Bush, a Protestant best known for executing large numbers of prisoners while governor of Texas and launching an illegal and unnecessary war on Iraq (and laughing about it in both cases), and John F. Kerry, a Catholic with a moderate stance on abortion (but whose opponents portrayed him as “pro-abortion”) who had pledged not to use the federal government to intervene against Oregon’s legalized euthanasia despite his personal distaste for the practice. And that Cardinal Ratzinger? He’s the new Pope.

So is the Vatican going to try and put the secular Socialists out of power in Spain? If the Socialists try and revoke the Church’s favours, I predict yes. Money talks, after all. Remember Martin Luther. Right now, we just have one isolated event. It’s probably too early to say, but the possiblity is there and looming in the distance. The consequences? Most likely the mere election of the other party, but let’s hope there’s not a new Spanish Civil War.