Spain’s Catholic bishops warned of growing division and tension in their country over government attempts to “deconstruct and dismantle the Christian worldview.”
“We are in a difficult moment, not only because of COVID-19, but because we are convulsed by a deep institutional crisis, with some groups 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, whose development puts freedom at risk and impedes essential unity.”
The warning was contained in a 95-page statement, published July 28, setting out pastoral guidelines for the Spanish church from now until 2025.
The bishops said an attempt was underway to “erase distinctions between truth and falsehood, reality and fiction, good and evil.”
“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 Spain’s co-governing Socialist Party confirmed plans to review a series of 1979 accords with the Vatican and adopt a “statute of secularism,” enforcing “strict separation between politics and religion, law and morality, crime and sin.”
The bishops said society was full of distrust and confrontation, as digitization, artificial intelligence and surveillance technologies fuelled “spiritual impoverish-ment.” They warned of a type of capitalism that does not just regulate production and consumption, “but also imposes values and lifestyles.”